Europe Eyes Use of Space Station for Global Climate Change Research

The European Space Agency (ESA) is on the lookout for ideas to use the International Space Station as a platform to conduct research into global climate change.

ESA issued on October 30 a Call for Ideas - a CFI for short -- to gauge the interest in deploying remote-sensing instruments for global change experiments on the International Space Station (ISS).

This CFI is open to European and Canadian scientific institutes and industries.

"As we are about to complete the ISS and look into extending its lifetime to 2020 and beyond, using it as a platform to collect data and study Earth phenomena is the clear demonstration that human spaceflight does serve terrestrial needs," said Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight.

Europe's scientific community is already using the ISS in a multitude of areas such as life and microgravity sciences, and now Earth science and climate change initiatives are to be considered too.

Potentially, the orbiting complex can be used as an observation platform for studies into global change, supplementing observations from dedicated satellites.

Instruments can be attached outside the Station, especially on Europe's Columbus laboratory, as well as positioned inside to view through windows. The orbit inclination of 51.6° and altitude of ISS are different to those of most Earth observation satellites, offering other ground patterns over an area that covers about 95 percent of Earth's population.

A "Letter of Interest" deadline is December 21st, with ESA feedback to proposers on ideas slated for March 21, 2010.

For more information, go to:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/HSF_Research/SEM3VBZRA0G_2.html

By Leonard David