Credit: ESA–A. Conigli
European Space Agency, Swedish National Space Agency to shape the development of Europe’s commercial space capabilities
Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is enabling Europe to take a visionary, leadership role in the future of commercial space. For the first time, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA), have teamed with a commercial space company to send one of ESA’s project astronauts to space. The mission is a ground-breaking venture demonstrating a pivot from the decades-long reliance on NASA and Roscosmos for access to the orbiting laboratory to conduct microgravity research, technology development, in-space manufacturing, and STEAM outreach.
The ESA and SNSA research portfolio consist of projects and experiments that will continue to build on the agency’s mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capabilities and bring value to citizens around the region and world. The portfolio has many activities that support ongoing ESA projects on the ISS to develop advanced technologies for application on Earth and enable long-term space habitation and exploration. The continued work during Ax-3 will help us understand how humans can live and work off our home planet. In addition, the investigations aiming to understand changes in Earth’s atmosphere and physical forces in microgravity will further inform researchers exploring fundamental scientific principles.
The Ax-3 mission represents a shared commitment to scientific discovery, technological advancement, education, and commercial innovation.
ESA/SNSA RESEARCH STUDIES
The Analyzing Interferometer for Ambient Air-2 (ANITA-2)
The ANITA-2 project will sample air from the atmosphere on the ISS and automatically analyze trace contaminants. The system can recognize and quantify 33 trace gases via infrared light and identify unknown substances for additional analysis on the ground. This project is part of ESA's ongoing technology development efforts for safe spaceflight in low-Earth orbit and beyond.
Multi-Avatar and Robots Collaborating with Intuitive Interface (Surface Avatar)
The ESA-led Surface Avatar project is focused on developing robotic assets for space exploration, building infrastructure on planets and asteroids, and optimizing processes for data connections and communications relays. The applications of this project are also useful in scenarios such as arctic exploration, search and rescue in disaster zones, and under-sea maintenance.
Sleep in Orbit
The Sleep in Orbit project will investigate the effects of sleeping in microgravity by monitoring sleep patterns in space and comparing them to sleep on Earth using in-ear electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment. Understanding more about disturbed sleep or adaptation of sleep patterns to new environments could help us understand the cognitive impacts of poor sleep, including problems with attention, concentration, learning and memory, decision-making, and emotional processing.
Credit: NASA
Orbital Architecture
Architecture has been known to play a crucial role in shaping the physical and social environments, and it directly impacts human physical and psychological well-being. This SNSA study aims to investigate the effects of architectural settings, and their properties on an astronaut’s cognitive performance, stress levels, and stress recovery rate. More specifically this activity looks to study if effects between the above-mentioned factors, observed in isolated and confined environments on Earth, and especially in space analog missions, are similarly observed in the environment of a space station.
Boundary cap neural cells (in red) in contact with Insulin-producing pancreatic islets (green) in microgravity during a sounding rocket experiment. | Credit: Uppsala University
MemoBC
The MemoBC is a national program implemented via an agreement between SNSA and ESA. Stem cells have great potential for regenerative medicine as microgravity increases the proliferation of stem cells and its differentiation potential. The goal of this study is to identify the effects of microgravity on neural stem cell differentiation, proliferation, and function. This also includes determining possible delayed emergence and the molecular basis for observed effects, focusing on possible stem cell-induced changes in their culture medium during microgravity and underlying genetic and epigenetic modifications.
Bone Health
Exposure to microgravity and immobilization can cause a loss of bone density, which can increase the risk of bone breakage and injury. In microgravity, the changes start to take place very soon after leaving Earth—the extent and timeframe of reversal of these changes upon return from space are under investigation. This ongoing ESA-led project monitors whether bone loss halts or continues upon re-entry after human spaceflight missions.
CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN)
This project is developing and testing an artificial intelligence (AI) powered free-flying companion, called CIMON, to support crew and help with efficiency during long-term missions. CIMON can fly freely through the ISS to support the crew as they perform tasks and can respond to verbal commands. This technology development project also looks at human-machine interactions to build robots and other technologies that are intuitive and easy for humans to use and rely on. The work will help design technologies on Earth that will optimize performance for seamless integration into many sectors, such as manufacturing, aviation, and healthcare.
Effects of Prolonged Spaceflight on DNA Methylation Age (DNAmAge)
The DNAmAge project will investigate how radiation exposure during spaceflight can affect DNA and its repair. By looking at epigenetic changes, ESA researchers will learn more about the epigenetic clock, a combined measure of aging in humans that considers a person's birthday and biological age. This project will help us understand the impact of spaceflight on aging mechanisms in the human body and provide broad applicability to the study of aging and its biological bases.
Thor-Davis
This project will investigate lightning activity at the top of thunderstorm clouds that extend into the stratosphere to better understand the role of thunderstorms on atmosphere dynamics and chemistry. Using a special camera that responds to local changes in brightness, the Thor-Davis cameras can image lightning at up to 100,000 frames per second, giving accurate pictures of what happens during a lightning strike. The proximity of these images taken from the ISS, versus weather satellites in higher orbits, helps investigators get more accurate altitude-related measurements. Other goals from this project include understanding the relationship between electrical activity and convective thunderstorm activity, the effect of lightning on atmospheric greenhouse gas composition, and the impact of lightning that extends beyond the tops of clouds on greenhouse gas circulation.