Goals and Roles

Mobility, communication and information are indispensable for modern national economies, but also involve risks such as environmental impacts and pollutants, risks of accidents, safety and security problems as well as ever more transport and traffic bottlenecks. Scientists at the Research Field Aeronautics, Space and Transport address these challenges. They draw up new concepts and technical solutions to problems and advise political decision-makers.

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR) is the only centre in the Helmholtz Research Field Aeronautics, Space and Transport. It is Germany’s national research centre for aeronautics and space. Working on behalf of the Federal Government, the DLR is, in its capacity as the German Space Agency, additionally responsible for the conception and implementation of research within the national space programme and contributions made to the European Space Agency (ESA). The 13 DLR sites in total in the various federal states are closely networked with universities and non-university research institutions.

The DLR also collaborates closely with other Helmholtz Centres, in particular with the two Research Fields Energy, on the one hand, and Earth and Environment, on the other. In the Research Field Aeronautics, Space and Transport new collaborative projects have been agreed and existing ones strengthened and consolidated, while new large-scale facilities have also been taken into commission. Atmosphere research has been given an excellent research platform in the form of HALO – the High Altitude and Range Research Aircraft. The German radar-eye in space, the satellite TerraSAR-X, entered its second successful mission year, and spring 2010 will see its partner TanDEM-X follow in its “footpaths”.

At the DLR site in Braunschweig, a high-performance computer, the centrepiece of the Center for Computer Applications in AeroSpace Science and Engineering (C²A²S²E) went online. In the Helmholtz Alliance “Planetary Evolution and Life” six DLR institutes are working together with twelve partners largely from the university sector to study the conditions for the evolution of living organisms on other planets. Furthermore, the Institute of Air Transport Concepts and Technology Valuation was founded.

The Programmes in the Funding Period 2009-2013

DLR scientists collaborate in three programmes:

• Aeronautics
• Space
• Transport

The work done in these programmes is characterised by their thematic and organisational integration under the DLR umbrella. Researchers in all three programmes have direct access to the shared core competencies they need in aerodynamics, structures and materials, communications, navigation, mechatronics and other fields. Synergies arise at the interface of aeronautics, space and transport, for example in the area of air and space-supported remote sensing.

The combination of Aeronautics, Space and Transport programmes in a single research centre is unique in the European scientific landscape. This position will be further expanded and extended in the coming years. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is integrated into the national, European and international research landscape and is excellently networked.

This includes collaboration with other centres of the Helmholtz Association in the Research Fields Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, and Key Technologies. After being reviewed by an international panel of experts in 2008, the current period of programme-oriented funding from 2009 to 2013 will see further advances being achieved in the fields of aeronautics, space and transport which together contribute to solving current and future challenges.