What are the experiments carried out by the French astronaut on board the ISS used for?

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“By night, the border between India and Pakistan shines like a procession of glowworms.” This is not a haiku but a message from Thomas Pesquet accompanying a photo taken from the International Space Station (ISS) and shared on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

The activity of the French astronaut, back on Earth on the night of Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 November, after more than six months in space, was not limited to posting on social networks beautiful pictures of the earth Where scenes of life aboard the ISS. In orbit at an altitude of some 400 km, it has participated in many experiments: a hundred for the Alpha mission. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), Thomas Pesquet has devoted 50% of his time to scientific research since the end of April. But what are these experiences for?

Outraged the educational part for young audiences, with the blobs, they can be divided into two main categories: space exploration and research, summarized with franceinfo Rémi Canton, project manager of the Alpha mission. NASA, which finances most of the ISS, sets the main directions. And the American space agency has made a serious shift to focus on space exploration, with the new race against the backdrop, in particular, against China, concedes Rémi Canton. In the sights: the installation of a future lunar base and the exploration of Mars.

To help astronauts protect themselves from cosmic radiation, which can cause premature cancer, Thomas Pesquet took part in a project called “Lumina”. It is an optical fiber dosimeter which measures ionizing radiation (optical fiber has the particularity of darkening under the effect of radiation). The device could warn astronauts of impending solar storms.

Long-term space travel also poses problems for the psychology of astronauts, and their sleep. Regarding this last point, Thomas Pesquet tested the Dreams headband. Ultimately, it could give them access to relaxation techniques inspired by sophrology or cardiac coherence.

In order to explore the surface of new celestial bodies, astronauts aboard the ISS are experimenting with devices that aim to perform robotics from a distance. Using a virtual reality headset and a joystick, they could, for example, maneuver vehicles on Mars.

These tests are supplemented by experiments in neuroscience, such as Grasp, where the astronaut, always equipped with a virtual reality headset, is adorned with a force feedback system.

But the experiments carried out aboard the International Space Station are mainly scientific. There is also a “incomprehension”, in particular of the general public, on the activities within the ISS, estimates Rémi Canton.

“The International Space Station is a science laboratory, no more and no less. It’s just the place that is different.”

Rémi Canton, project manager of the Alpha mission

to franceinfo

Laboratories can request manipulations on board the ISS because they need to carry out observations in zero gravity, either to observe its effects, or to avoid the gravity exerted on Earth. Thomas Pesquet therefore finds himself a laboratory assistant, a design engineer, carrying out experiments for other scientists. “He is not a specialist in super critical fluids”, specifies Rémi Canton. “We add our stone to the building in terms of knowledge but we are only one link in the chain”, he argues, evoking “a long continuum”.

The subjects studied are therefore varied and sometimes arid. “We have made progress in the knowledge of turbulent waves in two-phase media. But I’m not sure that many people are interested in it.”, smiles Rémi Canton. He also mentions “satellite stabilization” or “the marangoni effects”. Short, “full of complex things which have given rise to scientific publications with the Ecole normale supérieure and various laboratories”.

Jean-Louis Fellous, who directed the Earth observation programs for the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), praises the scientific record of the ISS by reporting that three books are being written. Each will be between 300 and 400 pages, and the whole will summarize “thousands of pages of scientific articles on experiments carried out aboard the station”, assures Franceinfo the former executive director of the World Space Research Committee (Cospar).

“Of course we have learned things but we have to measure this with a cost-result ratio”, tempers with franceinfo the former French astronaut Patrick Baudry, who qualifies the ISS as “can which revolves around the Earth” in which are conducted “burnet experiences”.

Michaël Sarrazin, physicist at the Belgian University of Namur, made the accounts for The world (subscribers article), in 2017. Compared to the cost of the station, 88 million euros were spent on average for each of some 1,200 scientific publications resulting from work carried out on board the ISS, between 1998 and 2015, according to his calculations. “We have in Grenoble a large instrument quite comparable to the ISS, the Laue-Langevin Institute, devoted to particle physics. Between 2012 and 2015, it produced 1,700 articles at an average cost of 200,000 euros.”

While the sums spent are significant, the concrete benefits of these experiences for the population as a whole are minor. “We do not reason in terms of applications but in terms of knowledge”, Rémi Canton slice. “At the start of the ISS, NASA put forward the development of revolutionary applications to justify the cost of the station. There are some but, in reality, this is not the credo here”, he admits.

Possible terrestrial applications arise after research conducted for the needs of astronauts. This could be the case with the Matiss experiment, conducted by Thomas Pesquet during his first stay in the ISS, in 2016. The aim is to develop antibacterial surfaces “intelligent” on which bacteria cannot adhere and then proliferate.

What is useful within the station – to limit the risk of infection on board and keep surfaces clean in confined spaces – is also invaluable for door handles in hospitals, public transport or even sanitary facilities. Five years after the first tests aboard the ISS, the surfaces are in their third version. “We are still far from being able to do large surfaces”, warns Rémi Canton.

Among the rare applications that can be used on Earth, he mentions the Telemaque experiment, carried out during the Alpha mission. “The idea is to be able to move and grab small objects with ultrasonic waves”, explains Rémi Canton. Originally, it is a tool for the astronaut who wants to move products that he would not like to soil or from which he would like to protect himself.

Ideas then emerged, such as treating kidney stones in a non-invasive way. This could allow them to be expelled or moved to better places in the body so that they can be destroyed. Another medical application would allow “targeted drug delivery, i.e. the ability to release drug particles into a vessel or along a wall”, anticipates Rémi Canton. “We are not there yet since we are checking the possibility of moving different materials like glass, plastic or wood in this way”, he tempers, with this call for patience: “From when we make our contribution and when it really comes to pass, it can be ten or fifteen years.”

France and Europe continue to send men aboard the ISS mainly for “prestige arguments”, reasons for “soft power”, estimates from franceinfo Isabelle Sourbès-Verger, research director at the CNRS, specialist in space policies. “Le Cnes cannot imagine that it could be absent from the field of manned flights”, she says. In short: France and the EU want to show that they count in the conquest of space.

Basically, since its inception, the ISS has had a political rather than a scientific function for the United States. This vocation becomes particularly visible again in the competition with China. But the European Space Agency accommodates it. “Europe has strategic, scientific and technological interests, so we are timely”, recognizes Rémi Canton. Before immediately adding: “In the correct meaning of the term.”


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