German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Studying star system LHS 1903, CHEOPS confirmed 3 known planets - and discovered a 4th. The twist? The outermost planet is rocky, flipping the pattern we know from our own solar system. Turns out the universe doesn't always play by the rules! 🌌

#cheops #cheopstelescope #dlr #ESA

🛰️ESA's CHEOPS detects distant planets by catching tiny dips in starlight - but that requires extraordinary precision. Thanks to DLR's thermal engineering, the detector stays stable to within 0.01 °C. Without that, accurate exoplanet measurements simply wouldn't be possible. 🔬🌍

#asteroid #asteroidresearch #DLR #Apophis

Two instruments financed almost exclusively by Germany (DLR) will be joining:
RPS – the first plasma spectrometer ever flown on an asteroid mission, measuring the plasma environment.

MARIE – a magnetometer that will study Apophis’ magnetic field and help us better understand its internal structure.

In 2029, asteroid Apophis will fly safely by Earth. @esa.int & JAXA are sending RAMSES to study it with two CubeSats: Don Quijote, which will land on the asteroid, and Farinella. Why? Because asteroid impacts are the only natural disaster we could prevent. 🚀🌍[

#HelicopterInnovation #DLR #TestCentre

🚁 DLR’s Smart Twisting Active Rotor (STAR) project is testing ‘smart’ rotor blades that twist using electric actuators and reduce noise by 7 dB – cutting vibrations and boosting efficiency. A big step for quieter, smoother, more efficient helicopters & future urban air mobility!

HALO is flying again today! 🥳 You can track it live on flightradar 🤓🌍

ESA's Plato spacecraft gets shaken to its core! 🚀 These vibration tests simulate the extreme forces during lift-off – one of many checks to ensure a successful journey to space.

📹: @esa.int

#plato #shakeit #vibecheck #dlr

📽️: NAWDIC

#HALO #HALONAWDIC #Ireland #weatherprediction #DLR

🌍 Winter storms in Europe are hard to predict because key processes start high over the North Atlantic. 💨 Dry air intrusions can worsen many storms as they travel from North America to Europe. ✈️ HALO is now stationed in Ireland to take measurements across the Atlantic, improving weather models.

Good News! The deadline has been moved to the 23rd of February! 🥳🤩
Use the link below to send your #GoodLuckMMX wishes 👇

Your reminder to send your #GoodLuckMMX wishes to Idefix, the DLR/CNES rover, before the 18th of January (this Sunday)!
And don’t forget to collect your boarding certificate! 🥳

You can find the form at the bottom of JAXA’s website:
goodluck-mmx.jp/en/

If you want to send a message with the Martian Moons eXploration (#MMX) spacecraft 🛰️ when it launches for Phobos this year (and receive a cool boarding certificate!), you now have until February 23 to get your message to us! 🔭🧪

Shaped by three natural forces – the landscape north of Eumenides Dorsum on Mars New image data captured by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express mission provide evidence of the dynamic history of this region near the planet's equator. The area shown...

Want to learn more about how this area on Mars was shaped? Have read through our article on the Eumenides Dorsum:
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

#Mars #HRSCimages #scrapedknee #Yardangs

Did Mars scrape its knee? 🔴 Not quite. These ‘yardangs’ are elongated ridges carved by wind into rock over millions of years. Mars' thin atmosphere (less than 1% of Earth's pressure) still packs enough punch to sandblast the surface – even areas like these, which are almost the size of Belgium! 💨

📸:
[1] CubeSat (10x10x10 cm, most widely use of small satellites
[2] Family photo of small satellites illustrating the size range
[3] The small satellite FOREST-3 (Forest Observation and Recognition Experimental Smallsat Thermal Detector)

Small satellites: tiny, affordable and flexible 🚀 They can monitor wildfires, map ocean waves in 3D and countless else 🌍 Discover how they’re changing space research and why future smallsats might even be wood based, in the latest edition of the DLRmagazine!
www.dlr.de/en/media/pub...
#DLR #smallsat

What a year. ✨
2025 was packed with projects, collaborations, and milestones we’re proud of. Thank you to everyone who made it possible - we can’t wait to see what the next year has in store! 🎉😀

#2026 here we come!

グッドラックMMX | JAXA「MMX」応援キャンペーン All aboard for departure in FY 2026! Messages of support for the Martian Moons eXploration mission, MMX

Find more information on the MMX Mission here: goodluck-mmx.jp/en/

And Idefix on Instagram here: www.instagram.com/mmx_rover/

#Idefix #Rover #Mars #Phobos #SpaceExploration

[📸: CNES]

🚀 For the New Year, share your #GoodLuckMMX wishes to JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission and the DLR-@cnes.fr Idefix rover – and they’ll fly on a memory card inside the return capsule on the 2026 mission to Phobos – the Martian moon named after fear itself.🌌

Better data, better climate science!

#GabonX #Biomass #Gabon #Satellite

Read more about it on:
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

Ever wondered how much carbon our forests store?
DLR’s Dornier DO 228-212 aircraft recently flew in sync with ESA’s Biomass satellite over Gabon’s rainforest. They calibrated the satellite’s radar so that it can precisely determine the biomass (total mass of living material) hidden in our forests.

Learn directly from scientists and enjoy excursions like the Kennedy Space Center and Wendelstein 7-X. 🔭

Sounds like your ideal summer plans for 2026?
Then check out the details under:
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

See you next summer! ☀️

Summer 2026 is sorted!🎉😎 Join the International Space Weather Camp hosted by the University of Alabama (US) and @dlr-de.bsky.social and explore space weather hands-on: work in small teams on projects from numerical data analysis to building satellite receivers. 🔬🔩

Germany invests 5.4 billion euros in the future of European space On 26 and 27 November 2025, ministers and government representatives from the 23 Member States of the European Space Agency (ESA) met in Bremen, Germany, to determine the future of European space acti...

An overview of all planned projects can be found here:
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

🚀 Last month, Germany committed €5.4 billion for the future of Europe in space at ESA’s Ministerial Council. This represents 23% of ESA’s €22 billion budget and will support a wide range of important research and science projects 🔧.

@esa.int

#esa #futureofeuropeanspace

15 years of TanDEM-X – DLR's pioneering Earth observation mission celebrates its anniversary Exactly 15 years ago – in December 2010 – the starting signal was given for a success story that continues to this day: the German TanDEM-X mission began operational data acquisition to generate a glo...

Find out how we are planning to improve Digital Elevation Models our web article 👇
www.dlr.de/en/latest/ne...

#TanDEM-X #Anniversary #3DMaps

We are celebrating 15 years of our TanDEM-X mission! 🥳🎉 For over a decade, the satellites TanDEM-X and TerraSAR-X have collected valuable data to create 3D models of Earth’s surface 🗺️ (Digital Elevation Models) used by scientists worldwide to track glaciers , monitor forests , map cities, and more.