The mentor
Tabea Tauscher experiments with young people at DLR_School_Lab Berlin
She was seven years old when, in 2014, German geophysicist Alexander Gerst returned to Earth after a six-month stint aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Tabea Tauscher was in the process of “inhaling” Die Sendung mit der Maus at the time, and when the popular German children’s programme devoted several episodes to the space mission, it left a lasting impression on her. “They managed to explain complex topics in a simple and accessible way. I loved that as a child.”
A sustained enthusiasm for space research has stayed with her—along with a firm conviction: “If you present people with something fascinating, it is easy to spark inspiration.” The now eighteen-year-old has been doing a year as part of the Federal Volunteers Service since early September 2025. Passing on scientific topics to an even younger generation, she works as a mentor at the school lab of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The DLR_School_Lab Berlin is an experimental and learning space. On at least four days a week, school students from grades 5 to 13 visit the lab. Divided into small groups, the children and young adults take part in a range of experiments drawn from the research areas of the DLR institutes based in Adlershof, spanning aerospace, transport research and energy research.
They might, for example, use spectroscopic methods to determine the composition of analogue—i.e. artificially produced—Moon or Mars rock. They might investigate how noise emissions from aircraft engines can be reduced. Explore how a fuel cell works. Put wafer-thin slices of meteorite material under a microscope. Or work with three-dimensional images of the surface of Mars—that come from a joint European satellite camera “that was developed here on the site”. Altogether, the programme offers 23 different experiments. There is no shortage of demand. The student laboratory is fully booked until early 2027.
When Tauscher began working here, the DLR was already familiar territory to her. As a pupil at a grammar school in Potsdam-Babelsberg, with advanced-level physics and a chemistry club, she completed an internship at DLR in January 2022. This took place under pandemic-related restrictions: The intern received instructions but conducted experiments by herself. Even so, it was an important experience. “I realised that there are many people who are just as fascinated with exploring the universe as I am. That was a nice feeling.”
The journey from Tauscher’s home in Nuthetal to Rutherfordstraße in Adlershof takes around one and a half hours. The high-technology site now feels like home to her.
However, there plenty of things in the young women’s life “that have nothing to do with aviation and aerospace.” Singing is one of them. For many years, she has sung in a children’s and youth choir, taking part in opera productions, and is also a member of a youth chamber choir. Both ensembles form the junior pool of the Potsdam Singakademie. Tauscher also practises various Asian martial arts. Her voluntary service ends in August 2026. What then? She wants to study and it will “definitely be something technical”. The future will show what that will be.
Dr. Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal