Experiments on the ISS (International Space Station) should help to better understand the hardening of concrete under conditions of weightlessness. Ultimately, they could help to develop more environmentally friendly compositions of the material without detracting from its positive properties. This is a joint project of the BIOTESC competence center at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hergiswil, the German Aerospace Center , the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University of Cologne .
BIOTESC works on behalf of the European Space Agency ESA . This so-called User Support and Operations Center is one of four such centers at ESA. It supports researchers in conducting experiments in the infrastructure of the ISS.
The research design for the experiments on the ISS also comes from Hergiswil. The 64 small test containers prepared there, each with different mixtures and injectable liquid, were tested, filled and packaged by the BIOTESC. Since there are plans for permanent presences on the Moon and Mars, some of them also contain moon dust, according to a press release from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The BIOTESC containers were checked for space standards at the ESA logistics center in Turin. Then they were flown to Cape Canavaral, from where they were rocketed to the ISS.
The experiment was conducted on February 1st. The concrete samples will not return to Earth until the next flight in July. In the meantime, the containers developed by the BIOTESC have already been patented in Germany. According to BIOTESC research group leader Dr. Bernd Rattenbacher: “All material that has a solid and a liquid component can be mixed in it.”
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