Article Posted on : - Sep 08, 2010

The International Space Station

MOSCOW (BNS): Scientific experiments have increased in the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) with the arrival of more crew members and integration of new modules, said flight engineer Fiodor Yurchikhin.

“There is more activity on board the station now as compared to my previous mission a couple of years ago, the programme has improved a lot. We have new scientific equipment, for example Glovebox and photospectrometers,” Yurchikhin was quoted as saying.

Many experiments are getting to new high-quality level, like Pilot, for which less time is needed today, Interfax quoted him as saying in a reply to a question sent through the ISS Mail Box.

Pilot experiment is examining the effects of long duration space flight and stress on the ability of cosmonauts to complete manual spacecraft control tasks.

On May 14, 2010, a new Russian laboratory was delivered to the ISS by NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-132 mission.

The Mini-Research Module-1 (MRM-1) or Rassvet hosts a variety of research experiments. The module will primarily be used for cargo storage and as a docking port for visiting spacecraft like Soyuz and Progress vehicles at the space station.