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European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS)
05.15.09
Scientists and payload developers can get more information on International Space Station research facilities by contacting the ISS Payloads Office or at 281-244-6187.

Overview | Description | Applications | Operations | Results | Publications | Images

Facility/Payload Overview

Brief Facility Summary

European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) allows for cultivation, stimulation and crew-assisted operation of biological experiments under well-controlled conditions (e.g. temperature, atmospheric composition, water supply and illumination). It includes two centrifuges that can provide artificial gravity from 0 to 2G.

Facility Manager(s)

  • Ulrich M. Kuebler, Astrium Space Transportation, Friedrichshafen, Germany

    • Co-Facility Manager(s)

    Information Pending

    Facility Developer

    European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands

    Sponsoring Agency

    European Space Agency (ESA)

    Expeditions Assigned

    |13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|

    Previous ISS Missions

    Information Pending

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    Facility/Payload Description

    Facility Summary

    • EMCS provides a facility where small organisms (plants, microbes, insects, amphibians) can grow in variable gravity conditions (0.001g to 2.0g) using a centrifuge.


    • It was designed for multi-generation experiments and studies of gravitational effects on early development and growth in plants and other small organisms.


    • For plant studies, EMCS will facilitate long-term growth studies, including multi-generational studies (seed to seed), early development events in plants, gravity influence on early development and growth (g-level threshold research) and studies of how plants perceive and respond to gravity when they grow.

    Description

    The EMCS Facility is installed into an EXPRESS Rack and consists of the Incubator (holding structure) and an ISIS Drawer. The gas-tight incubator contains two centrifuges and the speed of each can be set to exert a gravitational force on its four samples from near 0g to 2g. Experiment samples (plants, seeds, etc) are required to fit into the EMCS Experiment Containers (EC). Experiment Unique Equipment (EUE) may be installed inside the EC to hold, guide, or support the scientific samples (e.g. plant cultivation chamber). The EMCS facility can be adapted to different applications: microscopic observations of plants, on-signal perception and transduction in plant tropisms, to studies of small invertebrates and aquatic species).

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    Operations

    Facility Operations

    For experiment set-up and exchange of re-supply containers (for consumables such as gas and water) crew involvement is needed. Otherwise, EMCS operates autonomously. The facility can be controlled by commanding either from the ground from a TeleScience Support Center or by crew interface with the EXPRESS Laptop Computer.

    EMCS centrifuges produce varying g-forces at different rotor speeds. The following values are valid for the outside edge of an Experiment Container (EC) attached to an EMCS rotor. The g-force values for the inside edge of an EC are smaller by a factor of 2.2.

    • 2.5 revolutions per minute (rpm) produces approximately 10-3g
    • 53 rpm produce approximately 1g
    • 76 rpm produce approximately 2g

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    Results/More Information

    Information Pending

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    Availability

  • On-Board ISS

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    Related Web Sites
  • European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS)

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    Publications

    Results Publications

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      Related Publications
      • Helleseng O, Gronnevik A, Fossum R, Kittang AI, Iverson T Utilization of the European Modular Cultivation System-Opportunites and Support Functions IAC 2005

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      Images

      imageEMCS is a facility to be installed into an EXPRESS rack. It consists of an incubator containing two centrifuges with space for four experiment containers on each rotor.
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      imageEMCS sample cartridge that will be spun in the EMCS centrifuge. Inset image is of Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) seedings like the ones that will be used for Tropi. Tropi will compare the growth of root tips toward light in the absence of gravity, and allow the distinction between two redundant internal plant growth systems that respond to different colors of light.
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      imageNASA Image jsc2006e02539: View of European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) prior to launch of STS-121 that delivered the facility to the International Space Station.
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      imageNASA Image ISS013E66810: European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter, Expedition 13 Flight Engineer, installing the EMCS facility into the EXPRESS Rack 3A.
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      imageNASA Image ISS013E65579: EMCS shown here after installation in HRF-3A during Expedition 13.
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      imageNASA Image: ISS014E10645 - Astronaut Michael E. Lopez-Alegria, Expedition 14 commander and NASA space station science officer, performs the European Modular Cultivation System (EMSC) Experiment Container (EC) replacement in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station.
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      Information Provided and Updated by the ISS Program Scientist's Office
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