Exploring a valley and caves on Mars, searching for life: These are the goals of the German research initiative VaMEx. The Professorship for Space Technology at the University of Würzburg is involved.
Researchers from LMU, the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), and the ORIGINS Data Science Lab (ODSL) have made an important breakthrough in the analysis of exoplanet atmospheres. Using physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), they have managed to model the complex light scattering in the atmospheres of exoplanets with greater precision than has previously been possible. This method opens up new opportunities for the analysis of exoplanet atmospheres, especially with regard to the influence of clouds, and could significantly improve our understanding of these distant worlds.
What is the shortest route to the next stop or the agreed meeting point? Global positioning systems (GPS) have become a routine part of everyday life for most people. Until now, however, the minimum number of GPS satellites needed to determine the exact position of a mobile phone or other navigation device has remained a matter of conjecture. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have now proved that a precise location can be determined in most cases with five or more satellites. At present, we can generally be sure of having contact to only four satellites.
Researchers at LMU, the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) have developed a new model to explain the formation of giant planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The model furnishes deeper insights into the processes of planet formation and could expand our understanding of planetary systems.
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Nanyang Technological University Singapore (NTU) have set up a flagship partnership. The agreement strengthens TUM's cooperation with NTU and its global network in Southeast Asia.
In five years' time, a large asteroid will fly very close to Earth – a unique opportunity to study it. Concepts for a national German small satellite mission are being examined at the University of Würzburg.
A dome around three metres high sits enthroned on the roof of the Geography building on the Würzburg Hubland Campus. It contains a telescope that students are using to develop an intelligent sensor for satellites.
A new Würzburg space mission is on the home straight: The SONATE-2 nanosatellite will test novel artificial intelligence hardware and software technologies in orbit.
They were formed on the Moon more than three billion years ago, brought back to the Earth about 50 years ago, and recently arrived on the campus of the University of Bayreuth: samples of Moon rocks collected by NASA Apollo missions 16 and 17. The US national space agency has made them available to the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI) of the University of Bayreuth for scientific investigations.
In power engineering and space technology, the lubrication of moving machine elements is a particular challenge: the usual greases or oils have the disadvantage here that they evaporate in a vacuum and at high temperatures, while they lose their lubricating effect at very low temperatures. Therefore, solid lubricants are often needed. A new project at the University of Bayreuth aims to make a fundamental contribution to optimisation in this field, which has been little researched so far. Bayreuth’s Engineering Design and CAD research group is cooperating with the Institute of Materials Engineering at the University of Kassel and the Computer Chemistry Centre at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg.
