DLRmagazine 169 – Jumping on board the digital transformation

Abstract

As the volume of passenger and freight traffic continues to grow, rail has great potential to provide relief: automatic couplings, smart freight wagons and fast communication between train sections promise more sustainability, safety and, above all, punctuality. Find out how DLR scientists are working to make rail fit for the future with new ideas, concepts and technologies in the cover story of the new issue of DLR magazine. But change is also needed in aviation. To achieve climate-neutral flight, both engines and route planning must be rethought. To this end, DLR has published a new aviation strategy. Its goal is to decouple the growth of the aviation industry from its environmental impact. One way to reduce the emission of climate-damaging gases could be hydrogen power. But is it possible to run everything on it? And above all: does that make sense? Hear opinions from a climate researcher, an aviation propulsion engineer and an energy researcher in a new interview. Other topics in the December issue include the Cosmic Kiss mission of ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, who arrived safely at the International Space Station ISS after several launch postponements and has begun his work there; DLR technologies that are being further developed with an aid organisation with to support disaster relief operations; and, from the Central Archive, the 1991 experiment in the TITAN pressure chamber in which divers reached a depth of more than 600 metres – without the water.