The HRK President’s visit focused on the existing “The Ocean Floor” Cluster of Excellence, based at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, and the newly submitted “The Martian Mindset” Cluster (MAPEX high-profile area). Both topics – exploration of Mars, which deals with scarce resources on Mars, and climate and marine research – are addressing highly relevant issues of our time. These research topics illustrate the importance of sustainability, which is also a key focus in the University of Bremen’s new Mission Statement.
The visit also included a tour of the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), which is part of the Faculty of Production Engineering. The Drop Tower and the Extraterrestrial Habitation – MaMBA model were visited, a research project to simulate living conditions on Mars. Both are one-of-a-kind research infrastructures worldwide.
Professor Katharina Brinkert and Dr. Christiane Heinicke, both researchers in the “Martian Mindset” Excellence project, gave a tour of the facilities and explained why these are central in the Excellence application.
The second highlight was a tour of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, led by Professor Michael Schulz. MARUM is the largest university marine research unit in Germany and home to the “Ocean Floor” Cluster of Excellence. Its technologies play a significant role in marine and climate research and underscore the excellent research landscape at the University of Bremen.
MARUM’s core repository is particularly impressive. It is the largest collection of its kind in the world and is used by researchers in Bremen and internationally. The sediment analyses conducted here are crucial for the validation and further development of existing climate models. In addition, the technical infrastructure for deep-sea research was presented. This includes MARUM-MeBo, a sea floor drilling rig; the remotely operated vehicle MARUM QUEST; and the new control container from which the deep-diving robot is to be controlled.
