In a return to our normal schedule after last week’s EVA, we have started to deploy major elements for the Biolab facility inside Columbus.

Biolab supports biological experiments on micro-organisms, cells, tissue cultures, small plants and small invertebrates. Performing life science experiments in space identifies the role that weightlessness plays at all levels of an organism, from its effects on a single cell to its impact on a complex organism, including humans.

The Biolab facility

Some of the activities we are currently conducting involve using items that arrived on ATV-4 last month. Last week, Luca spent several hours installing a new microscope. This was quite a complex activity that was prepared over several months by engineers and operations people at the Columbus Control Centre, as well as colleagues in Germany.

We are still installing other items, comprising over 25 kg of re-supply and maintenance equipment. After setting up and testing all those items, we will test the Biolab facility over a period of several weeks in order to have it ready for this year’s upcoming experiments.

“These activities are a complex choreography between Luca on board the International Space Station and several ground centres in Europe”, says ESA MD Roland Luettgens. “They are the result of several months of preparation.”

Luca installs the Biolab microscope