(v)Sys-ed provides an object-oriented modelling schema for any technical systems. It integrates an UML and SysML notations with a database and a multi-user environment for collaborative work.

FOCUS is the First Orbital Curing Experiment of University Students conducted within the REXUS sounding rocket programme by DLR, SNSB and ESA.

The intention of this project is to develop a space qualified antenna for inter-satellite communication based on lightweight composite materials. The antenna will be constructed to work in the S-band frequency range and to have small mass and dimensions.

Goal of the project LUISE is the development of a demonstrator which is to verify ISRU capabilities on the Lunar surface. As part of this first phase of the project several terrestrial demonstrators will be developed and tested.

A pico-satellite verification platform based on the CubeSat standard shall be developed and built at the Institute of Astronautics (LRT).
It shall fulfil the requirements of a variety of possible payload.
Launch Readiness of the first MOVE satellite is planned for the end of 2007. Launch shall follow within six months.

The presentation of tuesday, 24.04.2007 with the expanation of the actual work topics can be found under the following URL:

http://www.lrt.mw.tum.de/download/projects/projects_133/20070424_MOVE.pdf

OnOrbitServicing - OOS will be an important component of satellite technology. The high requirements for transfer lines are a big challenge for science because of orbit mechanics. The Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 453, and here particularly the partial project I2 (in cooperation with the DLR / Oberpfaffenhofen) has taken up this challenge, and at the moment it is optimising the technologies available today to adapt them to the requirements.

In order to support the design process of habitats (manned stations) in extreme environments, especially in Earth orbit or on celestial bodies, the Exploration research group at the Institute of Astronautics is developing a dynamic simulation software. Central element are especially developed environmentally sensitive Human and Environment models.

The goal of the cooperation project BaiCES was the development and establishment of the system competence in the area satellite-close-supports telecommunications and navigation within Bavaria.

BayernSat is a small satellite mission of the Institute of Astronautics of the Technische Universität München. Mission Goal is the demonstration of new technology, namely telepresence.

Best-in-Space is an Internet portal - free of charge - covering the areas of satellite navigation, satellite communication, and geo-information in Europe.

Domestic Object Damage (DOD) is a problem, especially for compressor and turbine sections of jet engines. To investigate the influence on the performance and service life of the impacted components, DOD features are generated experimentally in the laboratory. A test bed was set up at the chair of astronautics with a particle launcher, able to accelerate ceramic and metal particles to the necessary 200 to 280 m/s. Well defined DOD impacts have been performed mainly on turbine blades of the new lightweight material TiAl.

Within the framework of an industrial project new methods and processes to support the development process in the area of electrical/electronic engineering (E/E) are developed. The configuration and change management is the focal point of this project. A configuration means a defined number of development results at a given time with a given purpose.

In applications for tele-presence video information has to be provided within a short latency. Therefore, camera- and computing units, which offer a higher performance than available units do, are essential. Out of this reason, a radiation hard, performant on-board-computer on PowerPC-basis and a novel video system shall be developed for space applications. Unlike present processor solutions, the PowerPC-system uses Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology and hence cannot be permanently damaged by voltage-caused latchups.

About 30 years ago a plasmadynamic accelerator for the simulation of micrometeoroids was set up at the Institute of Astronautics. Since that time, the accelerator principle has been further developed and its capacity increased. On the basis of the insights and skills gained during this period the Institute has developed, build and operated further high-capacity accelerators. These accelerators work according to the electrothermal, electromagnetic, or electrodynamic principle; and they have one thing in common: their energy source is a capacitor bank.

The CAE-Tool HydroNet combines the development processes systemdesign and systemsimulation into on integrated development environment.

The experiment proposal ICAPS (Interactions in Cosmic and Atmospheric Particle Systems) is an international research programme under the leadership of ESA and refers to experiments with small particles in weightlessness. A large number of technological problems need to be solved to be able to implement the experimental platform at the International Space Station. The Institute of Astronautics develops concepts and engineering models especially in the fields of handling, transporting, and accelerating the micro-dust particles that are necessary for the experiments.

A fully functional Breadboard Model of a Piezo- Linearmotor (incl. control electronics and sofware) was developed and built at the Institute of Astronautics.

This particular preliminary study concentrates not just on periodically manned scientific lunar bases and their implications, but on permanently self-sufficient man-tended outposts on the Moon, which should be able to house several ten's of people. This however involves a set of entirely new requirements to be considered, which may become essential also for future envisaged planetary missions, e.g. to Mars.

Consequently the fundamental moon base architecture and the corresponding systems design aspects for such a "Moon Town" are of particular interest and were studied in detail. The basic infrastructure elements needed for a permanently stay on the Moon were identified, which were in parts reasoned by analogies on Earth (e.g. waste water treatment). Further supplementary application specific infrastructure elements, used to support different dedicated tasks like science or in-situ resources utilization (mining) were outlined.

For this preliminary work it was of subordinate importance to study how materials and supplies are transported to the Moon. Main focus was more laid on the entire requirements and/or design drivers, which make up a Moon base.

The Mars Dust Counter MDC is the third of a series of experiments to investigate interplanetary, interstellar and circumplanetary dust. It is situated on the Japanese Mars probe NOZOMI, which was launched in 1998 and should have arrived on Mars in December 2003.

The Munich Office Space Chair (MOSC) is based on the proven princible of the Munich Space Chair (MSC). By small modifications to the original hardware and attachment of a three-axis-mechanism, additional degrees of freedom can be put to use. The chair as a fixation device now can not only be used locally attached to the "floor" of the space craft, but enables the user in micro-gravity to achieve controlled and defined movement through a space module as well as exact positioning and fixation in whatever point of the three dimensional space.

The Munich Space Chair (MSC) is a new fixing unit for astronauts.
It offers optimum support e.g. when carrying out precise activities.
The Munich Space Chair was onboard the Russian space station MIR since May 1995.
During the European MIR mission EUROMIR 95 the chair was used regularly for desk work on the one hand,
and for experiments that were fixed onto the slip-on working table on the other.

MuSSat is a client-server software developed at the Institute of Astronautics. It is designed to support especially the design teams during the design phase or for modifications of complex systems. The software is based on a simple powerful modelling language and has been extended with standard systems engineering methods. It not only allows to model the dependencies within the technical layer of a system, but also in and between the requirements, functions, and costs.

So-called parabolic flights make short experiments in weightlessness possible without having to go into space. During the last years several experiments were carried out successfully in cooperation with ESA and NASA providing us with interesing results in many diverse areas.

High-energy plasma pulses are used to convert the surface of metal parts and to add new properties.

The objective of the process steering tool (ProST) project was the provision of a transparent and simple guidance through the design process within an integrated design environment (design center). Within this project the ProSt demonstrator established during the BaiCES project will be further developed. ProST is made up similar to an internet webpage. As programming language HTML, php, and mySQL will be used.

The Institute of Astronautics at the Technische Universität München is working in the field of hypervelocity particle accelerators based on the electrothermal and the electromagnetic principle. All these accelerators generate a hypervelocity plasma pulse that can also be used for the generation of aerosol particles. In contrast with conventional aerosol generation processes such as in flames or in hot wall reactors, this process is characterized by an extremely non-stationary environment with very high initial power densities and extreme cooling rates. Such high cooling rates suppress sintering quickly and favor the generation of nano-fine particles with little aggregation and enhanced performance.

The objective of this project was to define a method, with which already in the first phases of the product development the downstream product quality can be influenced.

The ROSETTA Knowledge Management Video Approach (RKMVA) was a project in close cooperation with ESA, the 3D Systems Engineering GmbH, and the Institute of Astronautics of the Technische Universität München. The main focus of this project was to gather the knowledge acquired by the instrument experts during the design and test phase of the ROSETTA orbiter. For this purpose an approach with video interviews was chosen.

The idea of „Solar Sailing“ – the propulsion of space craft by solar photons is very old. For the technical realization, however, very large and ultra light foils are necessary (the figure shows the prototype of a deployable solar sail, developed by the DLR). Due to the large area and the long flight times, impacts by micrometeoroids and space debris have to be regarded. To investigate the damage behavior of such thin foils impact experiments were performed at the hypervelocity particle launcher of the LRT.

The Flughafen München GmbH (FMG) initiated the development of a software that simulates snow clearing on the runways and taxiways of the airport. Heuristics are used to optimize snow clearing.

The world-wide trends to develop more and more complex products in shorter time periods with lower life cycle costs, but a high quality and customer orientation require the use of suitable tools. To be able to achieve comprehensive, consistent solutions we particularly need tools that support engineering from the system point of view (i.e. systems engineering) and are able to integrate the different participating disciplines. The CAPE product family is supposed to fill this existing gap.

The goal of this project is to develop a methodology for system verification and validation for the whole product lifecycle.

The TU-Muenchen Payload Experiment on REXUS (T-Rex) is a project of the institute of astronautics and its intention is to measure accelerations in different axis which occur due to the movement of the carrier rocket. This carrier is a ballistic rocket which is going to be launched in Kiruna (Sweden) in March 2006. The emphasis of the experiment thereby does not lie in the first instance on the accuracy of the measurements but on using commercial of the shelf (COTS) components for the acceleration sensors (G-sensors). I.e. commercial G-sensors which have no “space- proved” certificate shall be used and that way it shall be depicted that low cost sensors can be used for future missions.

This project intended to develop a tool for Process Modelling on the basis of the input-process-output representation of a process.

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Simulation of an automatic multi-storey car park for the determination of operation strategies as well as for the dimensioning and performance assessment of new systems.

The results of this project shows how a Systems Engineering modeling approach for the development procedure of the entire system with the ZOPH-model (Zielsystem = goal system, Objektsystem = object system, Prozesssystem = process system, Handlungssystem = agent system) shortens the innovation cycle and leads to an increased transparency of the development of complex products, e.g. an automobile.