Two spacecraft astronauts will take over to install technology that will mark the first major industrial offering of the International Space Station (ISS).
Called ColKa, for Columbus Ka-band Terminal, the system allows astronauts to communicate with Earth at broadband speeds at home.
It will transform the ability of scientists in the UK and Europe to access the results of place-based experiments, from studies of the effects of radiation on seeds to biomining research.
The findings will help researchers understand things like how our bodies and muscles age, and improve their understanding of diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
This huge leap forward for research conducted in the Columbus model will allow astronauts and researchers to benefit from a unique connection back to Earth at home broadband speeds.
Currently, results are returned to earth on a hard drive, which can take months to get, with data sometimes lost in motion.
The new terminal will allow scientists to deliver results just a day or two after the data is recorded.
This allows scientists to process information much faster and modify experiments if they see any problems with the data, such as blurred image.
On Wednesday Nasa’s Victor Glover and Michael Hopkins will go outside the space station for six hours to unveil the UK-built super-sized machine, funded by the UK Space Agency to the European Space Agency (ESA) Columbus model on the ISS.
Science minister Amanda Solloway said: “This mission to launch the UK’s state-of-the-art technology into space demonstrates how government support is helping our most innovative companies push forward. the limits of what we can achieve in space as well as return home to Earth.
“Strengthening the speed at which data can be extracted from space will bring huge benefits to scientists and researchers across Europe, helping them to advance research faster, and opening up a number of commercial opportunities for UK companies as we build better back. ”
Connected to the ISS with a retractable steel cable, the astronauts have a challenging position as they work to enter their destination, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 250 miles.
They go without food for hours while working in an empty thermal space, where the temperature can be as hot as 120C in sunlight, down to minus 160C when the sun goes down. out of sight.
The data will be sent to a ground station in Harwell, Oxfordshire, near the ESA European Center for Space Applications and Telecommunications.
From there it will be transferred to the Columbus Control Center and customer centers across Europe.
Columbus was created and designed 20 years ago, when the internet was in its infancy.
The laboratory was launched to the Station in 2008 and uses the Station network and Nasa infrastructure to communicate with the Columbus Control Center.
David Kenyon, managing director at Harwell-based MDA UK, who designed and built ColKa using RAL Space cleanrooms on the Harwell Campus, said: “We are delighted that ColKa is being brought into service.
“This system is our first flight system developed through MDA UK, and we now have equipment for a further seven flight missions, including four lunar systems, under development at Harwell.
“ColKa will be of great benefit to our astronauts, scientists and ESA projects.”
To date, UK scientists have been involved in 17 state-of-the-art experiments conducted on the ISS and a further 33 that are currently being developed and prepared for future flight.
In total, more than 2,700 studies from researchers in 108 countries were performed aboard the orbiting facility.