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Closing remarks

Editor’s note: These brief extracts are paraphrased from live webcast and may not be fully correct.

Closing Session: ‘Future Perspectives and Closing Remarks’

Thomas Reiter, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight & Operations

  • This symposium has once more highlighted the success of ISS.
  • There is every possibility to continue research on ISS.
  • Our research objectives are interrelated. The science on ISS addresses issues for astronauts but the main focus is definitely for people on Earth.
  • We will see an increased scientific return in the coming years.
  • Research on the ISS is institutionally funded. We should engage industry to use ISS for research.
  • Investment in space is recognised as having economic benefits and this is even more important in times of financial stress.
  • All the best in the future, the ISS symposium 2012 is now concluded.

 

Thomas Reiter in closing address

First speaker day 2: Thomas Reiter

Editor’s note:These brief extracts are paraphrased from live webcast and may not be fully correct.

Former astronaut Thomas Reiter is currently ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations.

Download the presentation slides: Thomas Reiter: "A world without gravity".

A world without gravity: why do we need microgravity?

We need to understand in full the mechanisms governing our life.

ISS Symposium Day 2, Thomas Reiter gets things underway
European research programme on ISS is based on the ELIPS programme. ESA will further develop facilities on the ISS to deal with demand. Emphasis of research is on human physiology. As the the Columbus laboratory has been in full operation for a few years and many years to come it makes sense to focus on science now.

Research activities on the ISS covers many areas: medicine, biology, materials, climate change, earth observation, education