The DLR_School_Lab recently opened a somewhat unusual research laboratory: From now on, visiting school groups will be able to carry out their very own zero gravity experiments in a ten-meter-high 'Space Tower' made especially for them. The technology employed in the new lab facility strongly resembles that used in the campus drop tower operated by the University of Bremen's Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravitation (ZARM) – it was designed by the engineers who work in the 'real' drop tower. The aim of this ambitious cooperation project between the DLR_School_Lab and ZARM is to awaken pupils' interest in research – hopefully for many years to come.
The Space Tower is a ten-meter-high free-fall facility designed along the lines of the huge drop tower on the University campus. Small as it may be, it makes it possible to carry out experiments under zero gravity. The apparatus used for such experiments are dropped, i.e. allowed to fall free, creating zero-gravity conditions for a period lasting a full second. The capsule's fall is cushioned by a “bed” of polystyrene granules. In addition to the actual experiment, the capsules contain a power source, measuring devices and cameras, as well as IT equipment. This is used to monitor and save the data, which is subsequently evaluated and discussed by the visiting schoolchildren. The new facility is not in a tower, though, but located in an entrance to the DLR building in Robert-Hooke-Straße.
Manfred Behrens, an engineer who works for the company that operates the ZARM drop tower, is the person mainly responsible for designing the Space Tower. It took him several months to research, plan, and try out a number of prototypes – all this outside his normal working hours. Otherwise, the drop-tower engineer is used to dealing with apparatus of quite a different dimension. The Bremen drop tower and the catapult system developed by ZARM provide scientists with a unique opportunity for conducting experiments under conditions of zero gravity. By comparison, though, the small size of the Space Tower should by no means imply that less sophisticated technology is involved. On the contrary: While he was working on its development, Manfred Behrens discovered that the drop tower‘s technical specifications represent the most precise and at the same time simplest solutions for operating a facility of this type – regardless of size. The only difference: It wasn't necessary to install an internal vacuum cylinder. A capsule-in-capsule system reduces any disturbing air resistance during the free fall. The system achieves a quality of zero gravity that approximates to just one-thousandth of the earth’s normal gravitational force. The conditions enable highly ambitious experiments in different scientific fields, and the Space Tower is ideal for demonstrating the effects of free fall, as well as for making it possible for schoolchildren to work on experiments in a real research laboratory.
Contact person at DLR_School_Lab:
Dr. Dirk Stiefs
Leader of DLR_School_Lab Bremen
German Aerospace Center
e-mail: dirk.stiefsprotect me ?!dlrprotect me ?!.de
Phone: +49 421 24420-1131
Contact person at DLR (for press inquiries and photos):
Manuela Braun
Communications
German Aerospace Center
e-ail: Manuela.Braunprotect me ?!dlrprotect me ?!.de
Phone: +49 2203 601-3882
Cell: +49 173 395 68 96
Contact person at ZARM:
Birgit Kinkeldey
Leader Communications
ZARM Fallturm-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
e-mail: birgit.kinkeldey@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-57755
