A start-up in the Rastatt district is developing space containers. Next year, they will be used to transport experiments into space as part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX project.

Sebastian Klaus’s employees don’t even look up when someone new enters the inconspicuous, small warehouse in Lichtenau (Rastatt district). Everyone is concentrating hard on a different part made of shiny gold foil. At least that’s how it looks to the layman.

Goal: Transport cargo into space and back to Earth

In reality, the company ATMOS Space Cargo in the Lichtenau industrial park is working on advanced space technology. Their goal is to transport goods into space and back to Earth using containers. It is actually nothing more than a logistics company. Only instead of trucks, much more complicated transport ideas have to be developed for space.

The problem is that although there are rockets that can transport cargo into space, there is currently no solution for the way back to Earth, says Sebastian Klaus. To make this possible, the company is working on an autonomous space container. It will be launched into space with a rocket and dropped there. The space container will then find its way back to Earth on its own, without damaging the cargo.

SWR reporter Patrick Neumann was on site at the company in Lichtenau:

Space container from Lichtenau: A European pioneering project?

If they succeed, the company from Lichtenau could be the first business in Europe to make transport into space possible. But it is a race against time. In February, the PHOENIX capsule is scheduled to launch into space as part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX program. And then find its way back safely to Earth.

A total of 20 months passed between the first money from sponsors and the first space flight in February. According to Sebastian Klaus, companies with comparable projects need four to five years to do the same work. The reason for the stress: “You can simulate a lot on the ground, but a flight is always something different.” In other words: The team needs initial data from test flights as quickly as possible.

The container’s first cargo will contain biological experiments

At the same time, there is no room for error in production. The cargo of the space container is quite sensitive. On the container’s test flight, the ATMOS capsule transported biological experiments that could be important in cancer research, for example. The space container designers are working with another company from Meckenbeuren (Bodenseekreis) that produces a robot. It is designed like an incubator in which the experiments take place and the biological material for them is located.

The heat shield is important for the mission

The main difficulty for the Lichtenau company in this project is the temperature. The maximum temperature in the incubator is 40 degrees Celsius. However, the air in the atmosphere that inflates the inflatable heat shield when it returns to earth is 1,000 degrees Celsius hot, making it a real challenge. The insulation must be maintained for at least seven minutes. That is how long the glow phase is when entering the atmosphere.

International Team works in Lichtenau

The team at the Lichtenau company is international. The only requirement for employment is to be world class. A criterion that Ennesh Chavan from India obviously meets. He works in the office of the Lichtenau start-up on the remote control of the cargo container. Between his desk and the neighboring clean room, the avionics engineer is fascinated by his job every day.

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