The life sciences programme of the European Space Agency, and opportunities for radiation biology experiments

Abstract

With the advent of Europe's commitment to contribute through the European Space Agency (ESA) to the NASA Space Transportation System (STS) by means of the Spacelab programme, a new area for research opportunities on Life Sciences has been created for the European scientific community. Although considered as a young and new discipline, the goals of Life Sciences research in space had soon been defined by the ESA advising Life Sciences Working Group in the beginning of 1977. The programme proposals of the various subdisciplines concentrated on the advantageous use of the microgravity environment, to study in more depth the gravity relevance of biological systems. It included, however, also the use of other factors during space flight which cannot be reproduced or adequately simulated on the ground: cosmic radiation in its total spectrum, particularly HZE particles, solar and UV radiation, vacuum, and the combination of radiation and weightlessness, etc. On this basis, call for proposals in the various subdisciplines resulted in experiments also in the field of radiation biology which were flown on the Spacelab 1 mission and which were selected for later missions. In particular, ESA is providing the science community with mission opportunities on Spacelab, either European or International, with platforms to be launched by STS, and with so called multi-user facilities (e.g. Biorack). Typically, the experiments will be the responsibility of the scientists, the integration and mission phase the responsibility of ESA. Both mission definition and experiment selection rests with the ultimate decision of the responsible ESA Programme Board. A further description of missions envisioned, the Spacelab facility, platforms, multi-user facilities and areas of research applicable to radiobiology will be given. ESA's continuing interaction with the scientific community through the Life Sciences Working Group, and the advice of future programmes will be stressed as a vital factor contributing to a European Life Sciences Programme in Space.