Christoph Lotz

Leibniz Universität Hannover · Institute of Transport and Automation Technology

The applications of the additive manufacturing process Laser Metal Deposition include the production of near-net-shape parts, coating, joining, feature addition and, above all, repairs. This potential makes the technology interesting not only for applications on earth, but also for use in space. In the case of future space missions to Mars and beyo...

Research on basic physical effects in microgravity and the development of space-qualified technology for future missions is reaching its limits in existing facilities in terms of repetition rate, size and possible payload. In addition, Lunar or Martian gravity, for example, cannot be simulated or can only be simulated at great expense. This work ha...

Mankind is setting to colonize space, for which the manufacturing of habitats, tools, spare parts and other infrastructure is required. Commercial manufacturing processes are already well engineered under standard conditions on Earth, which means under Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. Based on the literature review, additive manufacturing under luna...

Material processing and material transport systems on Earth are designed for Earth's gravity and atmosphere. In order to pave the way for the future colonization of space, production technologies and transport systems are an essential factor in reducing costs and logistical efforts, such as in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Laser-based additive...

Through the striving of humanity into space, new production processes and technologies for the use under microgravity will be essential in the future. Production of objects in space demands for new processes, like additive manufacturing. This paper presents the concept and the realization for a new machine to investigate microgravity production pro...

Increasing efforts to move into space have driven the need for new facilities that are capable of simulating weightlessness and other space gravity conditions on Earth. Simulation of weightlessness/microgravity (approximately 10^-6 g) is conducted in different earthbound and flight-based facilities, often with poor availability. Other conditions su...

Future microgravity experiments in the Einstein-Elevator of the Hannover Institute of Technology (HITec), which is currently under construction, could be disturbed seriously by external vibrations [1]. To avoid possible vibrations caused by the gondola´s guide previously, the behavior of the guide components such as rollers and guide rail is simula...

The Einstein-Elevator is a novel earthbound facility for conducting scientific experiments under microgravity. It is a modification of the classical drop tower, whose free-fall simulation is based on a novel and worldwide unprecedented drive and guide concept. An experiment placed in an evacuable gondola is vertically accelerated, then following a...

The Einstein-Elevator is a customized application of a classical drop-tower. A drop-tower is a structure that reproduces zero-gravity conditions for scientific experiments. These experiments are carried out inside a large vacuum chamber, which is dropped without the application of external forces. The major drawback of the established drop-tower te...