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Thursday, December 06, 2007

Columbus Module Heads to Space

The next shuttle launch will carry with it a European scientific research laboratory that will significantly expand experiments in space.
By Brittany Sauser
Credit: ESA

When the Shuttle Atlantis launches tomorrow, it will be carrying with it an important addition to the International Space Station (ISS): the Columbus laboratory. The module is a scientific research facility developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) that will significantly expand the station's experimental capabilities. It is also the first piece of real estate on the station that will be controlled by the Europeans, making ISS a truly international collaboration.

The new laboratory will allow scientists to do a wider variety of experiments that they otherwise would not be able to do, says Julie Robinson, the program scientist for ISS at NASA. "For instance," she says, "we need to understand how the human body works in space if we are going to travel beyond Earth orbit. With Columbus we can cluster together the human research facility racks that NASA has built with the European physiology module. What we start getting is an integrated international laboratory."

The Columbus laboratory is approximately seven meters in length and four and a half meters in diameter. It is going to launch with four research racks: a biology lab, for experiments on microorganisms and cells in plants, invertebrates, and even food for exploration; a fluid science lab, for fluid physics experiments; a physiology module, to study the human body; and a rack, to study materials for power, communication, and even aircraft engines.

The module will be able to hold a total of 10 racks, the same number currently available on the United States scientific laboratory on ISS, called Destiny. The two modules are similar in design so that their research racks can be interchangeable. Next year, the third and final research facility, called Kibo, developed by the Japanese for ISS, will launch.

Columbus will be operated by a control center located in Southern Germany that ties into the mission-control centers in Houston and Moscow. It will also have nine centers in different countries throughout Europe that will link to the main control center so that researchers who have experiments onboard can operate Columbus from as close to home as possible, says Alan Thirkettle, the ISS program manager for ESA.

The launch of Columbus is "very exciting for us and will be the first major international program we have done with Canada, Japan, Russia, and America, and I look forward to the discoveries we are going to make," says Thirkettle.

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Comments

  • Science in the ISS?
    We are spending billions to put up the ISS, while real science is suffering. There is a cosmic ray experiment waiting to go to the ISS, one that can uncover all kinds of knowledge about the universe.    
    There is an earth radiation satellite waiting to be launched to measure the radiation reaching the earth, and the energy radiated from the earth at night. Global Warming, anyone?
    We are researching ways to send humans to Mars. Meanwhile, back on Mars, the two motorized skateboards are roaming around and discovering things. They "eat" sunlight, and have no waste to be disposed of. And they don't expect to be brought home! It takes the better part of a year to get to Mars, and a year before the planets are aligned for the return, and another long trip home. That is a LOT of twinkies!
      Manned space adventure was the big things in the 1950s and 60s and 70s. Captain Video circumnavigated the Universe in less than a month, and that was on live TV. It's not that easy.
    Rate this comment: 12345

    billg8907
    12/06/2007
    Posts:2
  • Apologies......
    This should have read ..... my favourite celestial bodies are Titan AND Uranus .
    Rate this comment: 12345

    DJTal
    12/07/2007
    Posts:124
    Avg Rating:
    3/5
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