The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) has selected nine international experiments to be conducted aboard the China Space Station (CSS).
UNOOSA and CMSA invited United Nations member states to submit proposals for experiments that would be conducted aboard the station in May 2018. According to UNOOSA, a total of 42 applications were submitted from organisations in 27 countries. Around 60 experts from UNOOSA, CMSA and the international space community then reviewed all 42 applications in line with the criteria set out in the original Announcement of Opportunity.
During an event at the 62nd session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, UNOOSA and CMSA announced that six projects have been selected and an additional three were conditionally selected.
“Despite the incredible advances made in the space sector in recent decades, many millions of people worldwide still do not have access to the benefits of space,” said UNOOSA Director, Simonetta Di Pippo. “This opportunity with CMSA helps bridge this gap by opening the unique research environment on board the CSS to all Member States.”
The winning projects were submitted by institutions from around the world including Belgium, China, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Spain and Switzerland. The research areas are as diverse as the organisation that submitted them and range from medicine, biotechnology, fluid physics, astronomy and space technologies.
A complete list of the winning projects is available here.
The first CSS module is scheduled to be launched aboard a Long March 5 from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in 2020. Once the station is completed in 2022, it will host 3-person crews on shifts of three to six months. It is expected to remain operational for a minimum of 10 years.
