A balcony for the space station

• ofPamela Dörhöfer

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An external platform is added to the ISS. Private companies should be able to do research there.

Since the construction of the International Space Station (ISS) began 22 years ago, mankind’s outpost has grown steadily – and with it the number of scientific platforms. But the demand for experiments 400 kilometers above the earth is huge. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult for scientists to accommodate projects that they want to test under space conditions on the ISS. For this purpose, the Columbus space laboratory of the European space organization Esa was previously available for researchers from Europe.

This situation should now improve significantly because the space station is growing: On Saturday at 7.50 a.m.European time, a Space-X-20 rocket with a Dragon space capsule launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (local time on Friday at 11.50 p.m.) to the ISS. On board a cargo that is as precious as it is complex: the Bartolomeo outdoor platform, named after the younger brother of Christoph Columbus, the eponym of the science laboratory on the ISS. Like a kind of balcony, Bartolomeo is to be mounted on the space station as an extension of the Columbus module and from then on be available for experiments by research institutions and companies. The outdoor platform offers them “a unique opportunity to develop their project quickly and easily in space,” says Walther Pelzer from the board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). With Bartolomeo, the research capacities on the International Space Station will be expanded by twelve experiment spaces.

The two by two and a half meters tall and 484 kg heavy platform was built by Airbus in Bremen and is to be inspected from the ground at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen. On the outside of the ISS, Bartolomeo is brought to the intended location by a Canadian robot arm and fixed there with two clamps. Subsequently, two astronauts are to take over the electrical installation in an outboard mission.

Since the new research platform offers an unobstructed view of the earth and space, Bartolomeo is particularly suitable for experiments that can benefit from the location directly outside in space. These include projects from the fields of earth observation, space weather research, telecommunications, climate and atmospheric research, but also exobiology. The outdoor laboratory is also ideal for exposing biological samples to cosmic radiation and seeing how they react.

Technologies could also be tested well on the outdoor platform, says Julianna Schmitz from DLR’s Space Management, who is responsible for the commercialization of the ISS there: “There are unique opportunities here that cannot be achieved in any laboratory on earth, because optical sensors, materials, and robotics components and antennas can be tested in direct space surroundings ”.

In addition to being able to test experiments and technologies directly in space, the new ISS outdoor platform has another advantage: Research projects can be carried out more cheaply there than if they were sent to orbit in the form of satellites. In contrast to these, no separate rocket launch is required, the projects can be brought to the ISS with routine supply flights. This makes Bartolomeo particularly attractive for small and medium-sized companies and can open up new business areas for them, “for example in the field of telecommunications,” says Julianna Schmitz.

According to the German Aerospace Center, the annual rent including flight to the ISS and installation of the experiment with a robotic arm is between 300,000 and 3.5 million euros.

The European space agency Esa and the German Aerospace Center see the new outdoor platform as a first step in the direction of a commercialized use of the International Space Station, which in the future should open up research opportunities in space to a wider audience than before. In the long term, the international space agencies hope that the opening for companies will also make the space station more cost-effective to operate.

The ISS

start of buildingfor the International Space Station was 1998. It is a joint project of the space organizations of the USA, Europe, Russia, Canada and Japan.

Germanyis about with the European space agency Esa 37 percent involved in operations and around 45 percent involved in science on the ISS.

The space laboratoryColumbus the Esa was established twelve years ago and is at the heart of European research on the ISS.

How longthe ISS will still orbit the Earth is not certain. In 2014 it was decided to operate it until at least 2024. However, there are also considerations to extend the project until 2030.

On roadis the ISS at 28,800 kilometers per hour and therefore takes 90 minutes to circumnavigate the earth.

The positionthe ISS can be found on http://www.esa.int/Space_in_Member_States/Germany/Wo_ist_die_Inter national_space station.

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