PromISSe Mission

During the six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station, André Kuipers conducted over 50 scientific experiments in the world’s only permanent microgravity laboratory.  In addition to his scientific workload, André carried out maintenance and operational tasks. Highlights included receiving ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle Edoardo Amaldi cargo ferry and docking the first commercial spacecraft, Dragon.

This video is a short highlight of his 6 month mission in 6.5 minutes.

ESA Astronaut Andre Kuipers gives a complete one hour tour of the International Space Station.

During his six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station, André conducted over 50 scientific experiments in the world’s only permanent microgravity laboratory. Now that the orbital outpost is fully assembled, astronauts on the Space Station can devote more time to research. 

A medical doctor by training, André conducted biophysics experiments that could offer insights into fighting osteoporosis, migraines and immune cell death. He also performed experiments in other domains such as biology or looking at improving computer models of fluids. Some experiments might serve to prepare for further exploration of space.

In addition to his scientific workload, André carried out maintenance and operational tasks. Highlights included receiving ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle Edoardo Amaldi cargo ferry and docking the first commercial spacecraft, Dragon. André has been sharing the privilege of living in space with the world via social media. His photographs, blogs and tweets have been followed closely by millions worldwide bringing spaceflight closer for people on Earth.
 
 

Promisse mission wrap-up
During his six-month PromISSe mission on the International Space Station, André conducted over 50 scientific experiments in the world’s only permanent microgravity laboratory.

Note: audio commentary on right channel, ambient audio on left.

ESA astronaut André Kuipers, together with his Russian Commander Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 08:14 GMT (10:14 CEST) in Soyuz TMA-03M on 1 July 2012. 
 

Andre Kuipers announces the winners of the third Spaceship Earth challenge in Dutch.  More info about Spaceship in Dutch can be found here:
http://www.ruimteschipaarde.nl/ruimtelog/Andr-Kuipers-kiest-de-winnaars-van-Missie-3-video-/184

As part of the PromISSe mission, André Kuipers undertook an extensive
education programme called Spaceship Earth.  This involved performing two
experiments  which demonstrate the effect of gravity of everyday phenomena
such as convection and formation and collapse of foam.  In this short clip,
André performs the experiment in microgravity and concludes that convection
is a gravity dependent process.  André also takes the time to observe the
Earth through the cupola and discusses all the convection processes on Earth
which influence the atmosphere, the oceans and within the Earth's core.

As part of the PromISSe mission, André Kuipers undertook an extensive
education programme called Spaceship Earth.  This involved performing two
experiments  which demonstrate the effect of gravity of everyday phenomena
such as convection and formation and collapse of foam.  In this short clip,
André performs the experiment in space and concludes that in the absence of
noticeable gravity, fractions do not separate as they do in space, air, foam
and liquid phases are not distinguishable.  Interestingly, the foams last
much longer in space than they do on Earth as bubbles are not subjected to
the gravitational forces that lead to the draining, coarsening and eventual
collapse of the foam.

As part of the PromISSe mission, André Kuipers undertook an extensive
education programme called Spaceship Earth.  This involved performing two
experiments  which demonstrate the effect of gravity of everyday phenomena
such as convection and formation and collapse of foam.  In this short clip,
André briefly introduces the experiments and describes the effect of gravity
on the two experiments and then ends by prompting children to ask what they
think will happen in the absence of gravity.  Children can participate in the
experiment by ordering the educational ground kit from www.esa.int/promisse
website.

What happens when your experiment gets over 30 000 views online? Tomorrow’s space explorers were awarded an out-of-this-world scientific exchange with astronauts on the International Space Station last Wednesday.
 
Youngsters from Europe, the Middle East and Africa were invited to the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, for a live chat with ESA astronaut André Kuipers and NASA astronaut Don Pettit.

The prize was well-deserved: only 21 videos out of the 2000 submitted made it to the regional final of the YouTube Space Lab competition.

The students had to squeeze scientific demonstrations into just two minutes of video and suggest what would happen in space with an identical experiment. The videos have been viewed over 50 million times.

This educational initiative supported by ESA “Gives ordinary kids an extraordinary opportunity to make reality greater than fiction,” says Zahaan Bharmal of Google and founder of the Space Lab campaign. He shared the thrill of his first call to the Space Station with the students.

André and Don answered questions from the finalists, and demonstrated the privilege of working in the world’s largest weightless laboratory on a wide range of scientific fields.

After André relieved doubts about risks related to human physiology in space, Don assured the students that, “Exploration is going to depend on you, on what you want to do with your own future.”

Global finalist Amr Mohamed, an 18-year-old student from Alexandria, Egypt, will see how spiders catch their prey in microgravity.
 
 

ESA astronaut and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ambassador André Kuipers and his
Expedition 31 crewmate, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, took part in a video call
with the WWF annual meeting that took place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on
8 May 2012.

WWF representatives worldwide heard what André and Don had to say about our
planet. Their unique vantage point on the International Space Station and
ESA's Earth observation satellites help us understand how fragile our planet
is.

The Dutch branch of the WWF – Wereld Natuur Fonds – is celebrating its 50th
anniversary this year.

Over 1500 students on Earth used good scientific practice and compared
results to André’s identical space experiments.

This once-in-a-lifetime experience brought together four European sites by
videoconference: science centre Nemo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the
Leicester National Space Center, United Kingdom, Parque de las Ciencias in
Granada, Spain, and the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany.

Before getting in contact with space, the centres demonstrated scientific
experiments to each other. They created fire explosions and super thick foams
to show students the footprints of gravity and physics in our everyday life.

The astronaut encouraged the children to satisfy their bubbling curiosity and
answered their questions. Solar storms, blood circulation and the water
behaviour in weightlessness were among the topics tackled.

On 5 April, Andre Kuipers spoke from the ISS in an inflight call with the Dutch public at the Artis Planetarium in Amsterdam.  The event was in Dutch and this video is with English translation.

André Kuipers took a series of photos of an Aurora Australis from the European Cupola module in the Space Station. The beautiful phenomenon is caused by bursts of particles from the Sun pouring down Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.  This is a time-lapse video we made from those photos.

On 5 March, ESA astronaut André Kuipers spoke from the International Space Station with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at CeBIT, the world's largest digital trade show.

ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations, Thomas Reiter, himself a former astronaut, will moderate the call to the International Space Station, orbiting 400 km above Earth.

Two German students from the YouTube Space Lab science competition were invited to ask questions.

Timelaspe video of Western Europe taken by Andre Kuipers in February 2012

André has been very busy onboard the ISS and has already completed some of his experiments. He was the tenth astronaut to follow the special SOLO diet to understand why astronauts lose bone density in space.

For five days, André ate only a third of the salt found in a normal diet. The results may offer insights into how bones age on Earth and could be used to combat diseases such as osteoporosis.

André completed the DSC experiment in the European-built Microgravity Science Glovebox, looking at temperature changes in mixtures of different fluids.

The results of this experiment will contribute to improving computer models used in oil drilling.

André recently shared a picture from the Space Station wearing what looked like a bathing cap. Worn for the Neurospat experiment, it is actually a complex network of electrodes for measuring his brain waves.

A total of 64 electrodes were carefully and precisely placed on André’s head by colleague Don Pettit. The goal is to understand if the brain processes some tasks differently in space.

André has also finished the Roald2 biology experiment on human immune cells. Astronauts’ immune systems work less effectively in space and scientists are trying to find out why.

Immune cells taken from volunteers on Earth were chemically frozen on the Space Station at specific intervals. By looking closely at the cells once they return to Earth, scientists hope to gain insight into the workings of the human immune system.

There are many scientific experiments still to finish. Maintenance work waits for no one so André and his crewmates will be busy keeping the Space Station running smoothly.

 

Andre Kuipers announces the winners of the first Spaceship Earth challenge in Dutch.  More info about Spaceship in Dutch can be found here:
http://www.ruimteschipaarde.nl/ruimtelog/Andr-Kuipers-kiest-de-winnaars-van-Missie-1-video-/135

When liquids and bubbles are in space, odd things start to happen. ESA
astronaut André Kuipers is inviting schools across Europe on a microgravity
waltz to learn what is behind seemingly simple phenomena such as convection
and foams.

Space  oddities  on  the  International  Space Station will help thousands of
schoolchildren  to  realise  that  the  consequences  of  the laws of physics
running  our  Universe can be complex – and on Earth they are not the same as
in the Station’s weightlessness.

Armed with two ESA educational experiments during his PromISSe mission, André
is addressing students aged 10–14 to share his scientific adventure.

Children  across  Europe have the chance to follow these ‘Take Your Classroom
into  Space’  experiments  with  André  as  part  of  the  ‘Spaceship  Earth’
educational programme.

ESA astronaut André Kuipers invited thousands of schoolchildren to perform physical activities and to learn about healthy nutrition to compete with teams from around the world to become as fit as astronauts with Mission X.

Mission-X kicked off again on 2 February 2012 with an in-flight call involving students in Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland. asking questions to André Kuipers on-board the ISS. 
 

 

Andre Kuipers talks with Astrium-EADS facilities, in Bremen, Germany, on 25 Jan 2012.

Andre talks from space to Dutch Prime Minister M.Rutte at Delft University of Technology , on 10 Jan 2012.

First IFC with Andre Kuipers in orbit during his PromISSe mission, on 5 Jan 2012.
In English and Dutch (with translation).

ESA astronaut André Kuipers and crewmates Oleg Kononeko and Don Pettit have docked with the International Space Station in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft. They will work aboard the Station now for five months and return to Earth in May.
 
ESA’s fourth long mission on the International Space Station began on 21 December 2011, when the Soyuz rocket roared into the evening sky from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

After circling the globe for the last two days, the spacecraft docked at 15:19 GMT (16:19 CET) this evening, 23 December.

During his mission, PromISSe, André will conduct more than 25 ESA experiments and around 20 for NASA and Japan’s space agency, JAXA, including human research, biology, fluid physics, materials science, radiation research and technology.

This highlight shows some of his work on the experiments ROALD-2 and Neurospat. He has also spent time exchanging an electronic module in the ESA Microgravity Science Glovebox and calibrating oxygen meters.

Soyuz launch highlights.

Pre-launch highlights.