SOFIA explores the southern sky over New Zealand

SOFIA at the airport of Christchurch, New Zealand;
Credit: NASA/ C. Thomas

For the first time, SOFIA – the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, has been deployed to the southern hemisphere. Based at the airport in Christchurch, New Zealand for three weeks, SOFIA will study celestial objects that are uniquely observable on southern flight routes. On the morning of 18 July New Zealand time, SOFIA landed after the first of its nine planned science flights, which included studies of the Magellanic Clouds, neighbours to the Milky Way galaxy, and of the circumnuclear disk orbiting the black hole in the centre of our galaxy.

As a joint project between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), SOFIA carries a telescope with an effective diameter of 2.5 metres in a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, making it the world's largest airborne observatory. SOFIA flies at altitudes as high as 13,700 meters (45,000 feet) to provide access to astronomical signals at far-infrared wavelengths that would otherwise be blocked due to absorption by water vapour in the atmosphere.

A crew of about 60 scientists, technicians and engineers from the United States and Germany, as well as two shifts of NASA pilots will operate SOFIA while in New Zealand.

The GREAT (German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies) far-infrared spectrometer will be mounted on the telescope during the entire deployment.

The two Magellanic Clouds; Credit: ESO/ Y. Beletsky

"The more than 30 publications of scientific results from the first observing campaigns in 2011 in the northern hemisphere with SOFIA's first generation of instruments, GREAT and FORCAST, have already demonstrated the tremendous scientific potential of this observatory," said Alois Himmes, DLR's SOFIA programme manager. "The current (and future) deployments to New Zealand will expand this potential substantially," he added.

On 12 July, the aircraft flew from its home base in Palmdale, California, via Hawaii, to New Zealand, where it will be based until 2 August. The scientific targets for the southern deployment of SOFIA include the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, as well as objects in the central regions of the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies in the close neighbourhood of our galaxy, are easily visible with the naked eye in the southern sky (image 2, they are named after explorer Ferdinand Magellan, one of the first Europeans to report seeing them). Their relative proximity allows the detailed investigation of stellar life cycles, from protostars to supernova remnants. Sites of prominent star formation will be studied during the deployment – regions that are well known from optical studies, but barely explored at far-infrared wavelengths. For a number of science objectives the telescope will be pointing at the centre of the Milky Way, which is much more accessible from the southern hemisphere than from the northern hemisphere.

The Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) of the University of Stuttgart manages the German contributions to SOFIA's mission operations. A crew of 13 DSI personnel will support the observatory's first southern deployment with their expertise regarding the instrument.

"We plan to conduct up to three scientific flights per week," explained Holger Jakob, head of the German telescope team. "Thus, we will be quite busy during the deployment."

The high spectral resolving power of the GREAT instrument is designed for studies of the interstellar gas and stellar life cycle, from a protostar's early embryonic phase when still embedded in its parental cloud, to an evolved star’s death when the stellar envelope is ejected back into space.

"With GREAT, we want to explore new frontiers, such as the Magellanic Clouds and embedded Tarantula nebula the most active starburst known in the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way and about 50 more galaxies," said Rolf Güsten of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), leader of the group of German researchers who developed GREAT.

"SOFIA's deployment to the southern hemisphere shows the remarkable versatility of this observatory, the product of years of fruitful collaboration and cooperation between the U.S. and German space agencies," said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division. He added: "This is just the first of a series of SOFIA scientific deployments envisioned over the course of the observatory's planned 20-year lifetime."

SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a joint project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR; German Aerospace Center, grant: 50OK0901). The German component of the SOFIA project is being carried out under the auspices of DLR, with funds provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium fuer Wirtschaft und Technologie; BMWi) under a resolution passed by the German Federal Parliament, and with funding from the State of Baden-Württemberg and the University of Stuttgart. Scientific operations are coordinated by the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) at the University of Stuttgart and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, USA.

GREAT, the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies is a receiver for spectroscopic observations in the far infrared spectral regime at frequencies between 1.25 and 5 terahertz (wavelengths of 60 to 220 microns), which are not accessible from the ground due to absorption by water vapour in the atmosphere. GREAT is a first-generation German SOFIA instrument, developed and maintained by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) and KOSMA at the University of Cologne, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. Rolf Guesten (MPIfR) is the principal investigator for GREAT. The development of the instrument was financed by the participating institutes, the Max Planck Society and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG).

DLR SOFIA special: 
http://www.dlr.de/en/sofia

Contacts

Martin Fleischmann
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Space Administration
Tel.: +49 228 447-120
Fax: +49 228 447-386
mailto:Martin.Fleischmann@dlr.de 

Diana Gonzalez
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 228 447-388
Fax: +49 228 447-386
mailto:Diana.Gonzalez@dlr.de 

Alois Himmes
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Space Administration
Space Science
Tel.: +49 228 447-346
Fax: +49 228 447-745 
mailto:Alois.Himmes@dlr.de 

MAPHEUS-4: X-rays in microgravity

DLR launches sounding rocket with materials physics experiments

Launch of the MAPHEUS-4 sounding rocket, Photo: DLR

Close to four minutes of microgravity prevailed in the sounding rocket MAPHEUS-4, which was launched on 15 July 2013 at 07:53 local time, from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden. The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) had two materials physics experiments on board the rocket. For the first time, the diffusion of aluminium and nickel was recorded under space conditions using X-ray analysis. The scientists at the DLR Institute of Materials Physics in Space examined the behaviour of granular gases in microgravity. The launch was conducted by the team of DLR's Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA).

The right conditions for the experiments were reached just 83 seconds after launch – the experiments MIDAS (Measuring Interdiffusion in Alloys and Semiconductors) and MEGraMA (Magnetically Excited Granular Matter) could thus be initiated without the disturbing influence of gravity. The rocket reached an altitude of about 154 kilometres.

Experiments in weightlessness

Experiments on board the sounding rocket, Photo: DLR

Before the launch, a small furnace containing the six samples containing various proportions of aluminium and nickel was preheated to 900 degrees Celsius. The furnace had already had its premiere in November 2012, when the scientists tested it on board the sounding rocket MAPHEUS-3. During microgravity, the different metal samples were moved into contact with each other inside the furnace, and thus diffuse the molten aluminium-nickel samples. The compact X-ray system, which is fully shielded to prevent the egress of radiation, was able to acquire one image per second in real time. "At present, the diffusion of liquefied metals is not completely understood," says Florian Kargl, Project Leader for the MAPHEUS-4 mission. The data acquired during microgravity is compared with model calculations and data from the terrestrial laboratory. The results can then contribute, among other things, to optimising industrial casting processes such as those used to produce turbine blades.

To better understand the behaviour of granular gases, researchers from the Institute subjected small metal balls to microgravity conditions. During the flight, four magnets placed the balls in motion and two high-speed cameras, which acquired up to 500 high-resolution images per second, recorded the particles as they pushed against each other and determined the velocity distribution. With the results, the researchers can analyse how granular gases – for example bulk goods like pills – can be packed more densely and in a more stable way. "The microgravity flight of the sounding rocket allows us to study these processes, without the particles being influenced by gravity."

Rescue by helicopter

After the 10-minute flight, the container that carried the experiments landed about 60 miles from the launch site and was retrieved by a helicopter. The DLR Mobile Rocket Base department was responsible for the design of the single-stage launcher and mission operations. Following the success of the previous flights, MAPHEUS-1 to MAPHEUS-3, they adapted the Brazilian-German S30 rocket motor for MAPHEUS-4 to significantly increase the payload capacity and flight altitude. "With a total payload mass of 272 kilograms, MAPHEUS-4 reached an altitude of 154 kilometres," said Frank Scheuerpflug, responsible for the MAPHEUS mission at MORABA, after the flight.

The scientists and engineers of the MAPHEUS teams can now look back on the results and experiences of four fruitful flights. "MAPHEUS is an excellent example of the most up-to-date material research under microgravity conditions, benefiting from the efficiency and flexibility of rockets," said project leader Martin Siegl from the DLR Institute of Space Systems. The MAPHEUS programme will continue next year.

Contacts

Manuela Braun
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Corporate Communications
Editor, Human Space Flight, 
Space Science, Engineering
Tel.: +49 2203 601-3882
Fax: +49 2203 601-3249
mailto:Manuela.Braun@dlr.de 

Martin Siegl
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
DLR Institute of Space Systems
Project manager MAPHEUS
Tel.: +49 421 244201-124
Fax: +49 421 244201-120
mailto:Martin.Siegl@dlr.de 

Florian Kargl
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
DLR Institute of Space Systems
Tel.: +49 2203 601-2064
mailto:Florian.Kargl@dlr.de 

Frank Scheuerpflug
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
DLR's Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA)
Tel.: +49 8153 28-3649
mailto:Frank.Scheuerpflug@dlr.de 

www.dlr.de

Artificial gravity, stress and a controlled environment - DLR opens globally unique :envihab research facility

The short-arm human centrifuge rotates,
generating artificial gravity for the test subjects
(Image: DLR)

A short-arm centrifuge spins test subjects at six times Earth's gravity; a hypobaric chamber simulates an altitude of 5500 metres; and in the Psychology Laboratory a shuttle has to be docked with the International Space Station under stressful conditions. The focus of the new :envihab research facility, operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), and its eight modules, spread over 3500 square metres, is on people, their health and their performance levels. ":envihab is the only facility in the world with this configuration and these capabilities," says Rupert Gerzer, head of the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine. Here, researchers will not only focus on astronauts, but on people on Earth as well. "Something that makes an astronaut more efficient can also help a patient here on Earth – and vice versa."

Rotating at 6-G

You can guess from outside what the centre of the facility contains. It is a circular area, and inside, the short-arm human centrifuge rotates, generating artificial gravity for the test subjects. During space missions, as astronauts work and conduct research, their bones and muscles deteriorate, the efficiency of their circulatory system is reduced (as a result of microgravity) and their immune system becomes weaker – the gravity generated in a session in the centrifuge might counteract these physical changes. "Using the centrifuge, we want to conduct research to discover how and to what extent this might happen," says Gerzer. During the session, the test subjects might be subjected to artificial gravity six times that of Earth's. They are also expected to carry out other tasks as part of this experiment: for example, they might have to do exercises on a static bicycle or a springboard, which can sometimes further reinforce the effect of the centrifuge session. Multiple cameras monitor the sequences of movements as they do so. One globally unique feature is the option of using a robotic arm to perform an ultrasound screening on the test subject during the centrifuge session and observe the heart. "First, we will carry out studies in which we can understand and use these research options very specifically." The aim in future is to deliver a custom-made centrifuge to space for astronaut training. Scientists will develop countermeasures for bone and muscle deterioration following a lengthy confinement to bed or in old age here on Earth.

Resting for science

The other modules are in the immediate vicinity of the centrifuge. In future the Sleep and Physiology Laboratory will be used to conduct bed confinement studies lasting several weeks or months. Up to twelve test subjects can be placed there under precisely controlled environmental conditions. Humidity, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide levels, ambient light and temperature can all be precisely set and adjusted according to the research being conducted. Special light covers also enable experiments using different wavelengths. "Astronauts are shift workers just as much as factory workers or nurses and doctors on night shifts," says Gerzer. Research into which wavelengths favourably affect the rhythm of shift workers will benefit workers in space and on Earth. Additional areas of research will be bone and muscle deterioration, the circadian rhythm and the effects of nutritional variation.

Looking at the body and brain

One of the installations in the :envihab research facility is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device with positron emission tomography (PET) capabilities. With this instrument, researchers will be able to investigate – right on site, just a few metres from the various modules, such as the Sleep and Physiology laboratory or the centrifuge – for example, where the human body stores sodium, water and fat content levels, and how the body is supplied with blood. It is also possible to make neuroreceptors in the brain and processes associated with them visible. "The shortness of the trip from the test subject room to the MRI guarantees that the selected environmental conditions and the position of the test subject are not altered during the trip."

In the Prevention and Rehabilitation Laboratory, scientists are investigating the cardio-pulmonary system and the human musculoskeletal system, as well as the effects of atmospheric conditions on the body. In the hypobaric chamber, conditions are created to simulate altitudes of up to 5500 metres. The Physiology Laboratory will be used to study ways to counter the negative effects of zero gravity. Various types of equipment are available to, for example, measure muscle strength and performance. The adjacent Biology Laboratory contains multiple laboratories for analysing microbial load and preparing biological experiments for space.

Work under stress

The human psyche is the subject of studies in the Psychology Laboratory. How do people react when they need to complete complex tasks under stress? What effects, for example, does a long-term mission in space have on the astronauts, who live and work with one another in very limited space and with little contact with the outside world? Here again the research results will be important for both astronauts and people on Earth. "Certain tasks require teamwork under extreme stress – no different to the work of astronauts on the Space Station," adds the head of the Institute.

The initial studies will be used to become acquainted with the equipment and facilities in :envihab. Then, a two-month bed rest study will begin. "The potential users of our facility are not just DLR scientists, but also international space agencies or universities." In future, European astronauts will come to the Cologne-based research facility after returning from space to undergo the first studies. "In :envihab, research for space flight and applications on Earth will be carried out, and both will profit from it."


Contact:

German Aerospace Center (DLR)
DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine
Linder Hoehe
51147 Koeln
Germany
http://www.DLR.de/en/