European research has been a part of the International Space Station since the very first expeditions to our orbiting science facility in 2001.
"ESA regularly announces new research opportunities to conduct experiments that are out-of-this world. We are very pleased to be able to offer these new opportunities from the Life as well as Physical Sciences area that will hopefully unveil exciting discoveries," says Jennifer Ngo-Anh, ESA's head of human spaceflight research.
Astronauts have generally spent six months on the Space Station in the last few years but the international partners that run the research platform are looking to do more one-year missions as well as short-duration missions. With new flight opportunities on the horizon for astronauts on both longer and shorter flights ESA is looking for experiments that can be conducted in two months or less.
Investigating how the human body adapts to life in space is crucial to better understanding the complexities of exploring our Solar System. European research discovered that at a cellular level it only takes 42 seconds for organisms to return to normal after being exposed to weightlessness. Why this amount of time and what processes are involved remain open questions – especially when it comes to the entire human body.
ESA has an electromagnetic levitator in Europe's Columbus space laboratory that can heat and solidify metals as they float in weightlessness. Removing gravity and the metal's container from the equation allows researchers to investigate the processes of how metals form in greater detail.
Industry is eagerly pursuing the results from experiments run in this space furnace as they continuously seek to optimise their metal casting techniques on Earth. Light-weight, high-performance materials are part of the space age but require a deep understanding of the microstructures that occur when metals are cast. The electromagnetic levitator allows for better mathematical models, resulting in new materials to be produced on an industrial scale on Earth.
