2024

TEXUS 60 sounding rocket campaign

We look forward to the 60th TEXUS-sounding rocket campaign in January 2024. We will study the secondary messenger calcium in Arabidopsis roots using the FLUMIAS spinning disc microscope. 

2022

image by DLR

TEXUS 57-2 sounding rocket campaign

The second 57th TEXUS-sounding rocket campaign occurred in October 2022 in Kiruna, Sweden. Everything worked according to plan this time. The new IMPACT hardware developed with Airbus DS was used to fix Arabidopsis seedlings in 5 minutes of microgravity, and we returned with fixed Arabidopsis plants for molecular analysis. 

image by DLR

TEXUS 57 sounding rocket campaign

The 57th TEXUS-sounding rocket campaign occurred in February 2022 in Kiruna, Sweden. Due to the conflict in Ukraine, however, we had to cancel the campaign 7 hours before the countdown. 

2021

75th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 75th ESA PFC took place from 19-29th of April 2021 and will be conducted on Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport. Out research question deals again with cartilage breakdown in microgravity. We will study the first molecular responses of human chondrocytes, the active cells in cartilage, to the hyper- and microgravity environment during a parabolic flight.

IMPACT - the second Drop Tower Campaign

The second IMPACT Drop Tower Campaign took place in February 2021 at the Drop Tower of the Center Of Applied Space Technology And Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen.This time we were able to test the Late Access Unit for the upcoming sounding rocket campaign in November 2021. The hardware performed as expected, a big success.

2020

73rd ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 73rd ESA PFC took place from 25 October 2020 to 6 November 2020 and will be conducted on Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Paderborn, Germany. Our research question dealt with typical problem astronauts have, cartilage breakdown in microgravity. We tested a new reporter system and analyszed the first molecular responses of human chondrocytes, the active cells in cartilage, to the hyper- and microgravity environment during a parabolic flight.

IMPACT - Drop Tower Campaign

The first IMPACT Drop Tower Campaign took place in September 2020 at the Drop Tower of the Center Of Applied Space Technology And Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen.This allowed us to perform critical hardware tests for the upcoming sounding rocket campaign in November 2021. This time we used the catapult mode which doubles the time in microgravity to 9.3 seconds.

2019

34th DLR Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 34th PFC took place from 02 September 2019 to 13 September 2019 and was conducted on board of Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport. The first week was dedicated to the preparation and integration into the airplane of the 12 experiments, selected by the DLR. During the second week, two parabolic flights (10 September, 11 September) were performed. A third flight was unfortunately not completed due to technical problems.

Short-Arm Human Centrifuge (SAHC) campaign, DLR, Cologne

With the Short-Arm Human Centrifuge (SAHC) in Cologne – provided by the ESA – and our Arabidomics hardware, Arabidopsis plants were exposed to a hypergravity profile simulating the acceleration forces of a sounding rocket start. Transcriptomic analyses of these plants helped us to build an imporoved hardware for an upcoming sounding rocket campaign. 

​2nd DROPS - Drop Tower Campaign

The second DROPS Drop Tower Campaign took place in spring of 2019 and was conducted at the Drop Tower of the Center Of Applied Space Technology And Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen. A total of 8 drops were performed at the Drop Tower.

2018

70th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 70th PFC took place from 22 October 2018 to 02 November 2018 and was conducted on board of Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport. The first week was dedicated to the preparation and integration into the airplane of the 12 experiments, selected by ESA´s scientific committees. During the second week, three parabolic flights (30 October, 31 October and 1 November) were performed.

2017

67th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 67th PFC took place from 06 November 2017 to 16 November 2017 and was conducted on board of Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport. While the first week was dedicated to the preparation of the 13 experiments selected by ESA´s science committees and the experiment integration into the airplane, during the second week three parabolic flights (14, 15, 16 November) were performed.

​DROPS - Drop Tower Campaign

The DROPS Drop Tower Campaign took place in spring and autumn of 2017 and was conducted at the Drop Tower of the Center Of Applied Space Technology And Microgravity (ZARM) in Bremen. A total of 16 drops were performed in 2 consecutive visits to the Drop Tower.

2016

29th DLR Parabolic Flight Campaign

The 29th PFC took place from 05 September 2017 to 17 September 2016 and was conducted on board of Novespace´s Airbus A310 ZERO-G from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport. While the first week was dedicated to the preparation of the 11 experiments selected by the DLR and the experiment integration into the airplane, during the second week three parabolic flights (13, 14, 15 September) were performed.

Plant Physiology

Prof. Dr. Maik Böhmer

Biozentrum, Campus Riedberg
Building 200, Room 307
Max-von-Laue-Str. 9
60438 Frankfurt am Main

T +49 69 798-29296

E boehmer@bio.uni-frankfurt.de