The EEA (Erasmus Experiment Archive) is a database of ESA funded or co-funded experiments, covering a wide range of scientific areas, performed on space platforms and in microgravity ground-based facilities over the past 35 years.

The EEA supercedes the former ESA Microgravity Database (MGDB). The hundreds of experiments performed in various fields on microgravity platforms have yielded an impressive collection of scientific results. However, it is often difficult to trace general information, or in particular the results, related to these experiments. Also, because flight opportunities for microgravity experiments are rare, it is extremely important to be able to access the results of previous experiments. Even though those results obtained by other scientists might not be conclusive, they can still aid in the understanding of a scientific problem, thus enabling the definition of further, meaningful experiments. Moreover, the availability of information on all experiments performed, as well as on planned ones, prevents the wasting of valuable resources.

The EEA will help potential users in understanding what has already been achieved, and will aid them in developing new science objectives by building on past results and recommendations.

The European Space Agency has established the EEA with the following objectives in mind:

• To provide experienced and potential European scientists with a user-friendly reference tool.

• To provide an overview of European experiments carried out on space platforms and ground-based facilities.

• To provide coverage of the ESA Research Cornerstones.

• To provide (where possible) scientific results of the experiments.

• To provide references for further details and results.

• To provide as much multi-media material relative to the experiments (i.e. images, videos, audio, graphs, tables, animations, etc.).

The EEA is aimed at virtually anybody who wishes to have a reference to European microgravity experimentation. But more specifically, it has been developed for experienced or potential users of European microgravity experiment facilities.

In 2000, ESA prepared a comprehensive Research Plan defining the scientific priorities in the life and physical sciences for a 5-year period, with a horizon of 10 years. The compilation of this Research Plan was initiated by a bottom-up analysis of all the research proposals received at that time by ESA. As a next step, ESA asked the European Science Foundation (ESF) to assess the research priorities in a dedicated user consultation meeting, which took place in Bischenberg, France in November 2000. At this meeting and in the subsequent ESF recommendations, the concept of Research Cornerstones was defined.

The Research Cornerstones describe areas of research where concerted efforts at the European level have already produced, or are promising to lead to, eminence if not a leading position on a global level. They provide therefore, an excellent basis for ensuring that new proposals will address issues that have been recognised as constituting a particular strength in Europe. A particular advantage of this will be that the research objectives of the ESA programme will be better harmonised with those of other research funding agencies or entities in Europe, leading to a more efficient and complete coverage of the research efforts involved. It will also further promote the teaming of research groups at European level, thus combining strengths and increasing European knowledge and competitiveness. Finally, it will allow ESA to streamline and optimise the available and future research infrastructure to sustain those objectives.

Already at Bischenberg it was identified that the Research Plan is by definition a living document. Research priorities may shift, new promising research fields may emerge, or new results taken into account. For that reason, it was envisaged that the process of user consultation should be repeated at regular intervals.

Following this, a second user consultation on Life and Physical Sciences in Space was organised again by ESF at Obernai, France in May 2004. On this occasion a larger number of scientists participated and more time was available to discuss the individual disciplines during two workshops. After this consultation ESF recommended updated Research Cornerstones, which ESA and its advisory committees analysed. After a full investigation, ESA produced an updated Research Plan, in which also the new Research Cornerstones were defined.

The EEA contains concise information relative to European experiments executed during missions and campaigns on/in the following platforms:

1. Space Shuttle

2. Space Stations

3. Retrievable Capsules

4. Ground Based Facilities

5. Parabolic Flights

6. Sounding Rockets

• Research Cornestone: one of the Research Cornerstones mentioned above.

• Research Area: a more precisely defined area of research, a sub-field of the Research Cornerstone.

   

• Mission: the name of the mission during which the experiment was performed.

• Experiment Date: the day on which the experiment was executed.

• Team Members: a list of the major participants involved in the scientific life-cycle of the experiment.

• Affiliations: a detailed list of contact adresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail adresses of the affiliations to which each member belongs.

• References: a list of references containing further information on the experiment and on the scientific results obtained from the experiment.

• Processing facility: in many cases the experiments are not self-standing or autonomous experiments, but are executed within other multi-user facilities or ad-hoc designed facilities.

• Experiment objectives: a brief outline of the principal scientific objectives of the experiments.

• Experiment procedure: a description of the sequential steps that are performed during the execution of the experiments.

• Experiment results: an overview of the results obtained after post-flight analyses have been performed.

• Attachments: multimedia material (when available) relative to the experiment (i.e. images, videos, audio files, animations, PDF documents, etc.).

• Validation point: the name and e-mail address of the ESA person to contact for any further information regarding the experiment.

The following is an example of an EEA experiment record.

The attachments are given as hyperlinks, which, once clicked on will open the relative image, video, document, etc.

From the EEA home page, there are two main methods of performing a search.

A. Full Text Search

By entering a text string into the search text box, a full text search will be carried out through all the fields, which make up the records contained in the database. The text search is not case sensitive, and is an "AND" type search, i.e. it only returns records containing ALL the text that you insert into the text search box.

B. Advanced Search


The advanced search is performed by clicking on one of the graphical icons on the EEA home page. This advanced search allows you to search records by:

• Year: By clicking on the "Year" button, a cronologically ordered list of years beginning with 1970 will be displayed. By clicking on the year of interest, a list of experiments performed during that year will appear.

• Nationality: By clicking on the "Nationality" button, you will obtain a list of ESA member states, and by clicking on the desired nation, a list of experiments, which has one or more Team Members associated to an affiliation belonging to that member state, will be provided.

• Life Sciences: The scientific areas have been divided into two groups Life Sciences and Physical Sciences. For experiment proposals submitted ONLY from 2002 onwards it is possible to search experiments by Research Cornerstones (refer to paragraph 4 above: What are the ESA Research Cornerstones?). For ALL experiments it is possible to execute a search by a more specific Research Area. By clicking on the "Life Sciences" button you will get a list of Research Cornerstones and Research Areas belonging to Life Sciences, and clicking on one of these will result in a list of all experiments performed under that research cornerstone (only 2002 onwards) or research area.

• Physical Sciences: The scientific areas have been divided into two groups Life Sciences and Physical Sciences. For experiment proposals submitted ONLY from 2002 onwards it is possible to search experiments by Research Cornerstones (refer to paragraph 4 above: What are the ESA Research Cornerstones?). For ALL experiments it is possible to execute a search by a more specific Research Area. By clicking on the "Physical Sciences" button you will get a list of Research Cornerstones and Research Areas belonging to Physical Sciences, and clicking on one of these will result in a list of all experiments performed under that research cornerstone (only 2002 onwards) or research area.

• Retrievable Capsules: Clicking on the "Retrievable Capsules" image, you will be presented with a list of all missions belonging to this category (e.g. Foton missions). Select the desired mission to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that mission.

• Space Stations: Clicking on the "Space Stations" image, you will be presented with a list of all missions belonging to this category (e.g. ISS missions). Select the desired mission to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that mission.

• Ground Facilities: Clicking on the "Ground Facilities" image, you will be presented with a list of all missions belonging to this category (e.g. Drop towers). Select the desired mission to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that mission.

• Parabolic Flights: Clicking on the "Parabolic Flights" image, you will be presented with a list of all campaigns belonging to this category. Select the desired campaign to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that campaign.

• Space Shuttle: Clicking on the "Space Shuttle" image, you will be presented with a list of all missions belonging to this category. Select the desired mission to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that mission.

• Sounding Rockets: Clicking on the "Sounding Rockets" image, you will be presented with a list of all campaigns belonging to this category (e.g. Texus missions). Select the desired campaign to obtain a list of all experiments performed during that campaign.

• Experiment Title: The full title and acronym of the experiment.

• Research Cornerstone: one of the Research Cornerstones described in question 4. These are only applicable to experiments submitted after 2002.

• Research Area: a more precisely defined area of research, a sub-field of the Research Cornerstone.

• Mission: the name of the mission during which the experiment was performed.

• Experiment Date: the day on which the experiment was executed or the mission launch date.

• Team Members: a full list of team member names.

• Affiliations: a detailed list of contact adresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail adresses of the affiliations to which each member belongs.

• References/Publications: a list of references containing further information on the experiment and on the published scientific results obtained from the experiment.

• Processing facility: in many cases the experiments are not self-standing or autonomous experiments, but are executed within other multi-user facilities or ad-hoc designed facilities.

• Experiment objectives: a brief outline of the principal scientific objectives of the experiments (max. 15 lines).

• Experiment procedure: a description of the sequential steps that are performed during the execution of the experiments (max. 1 page).

• Experiment results: an overview of the results obtained (even preliminary) after post-flight analyses have been performed, and the conclusions reached (max 1 page).

• Attachments: multimedia material (when available) relative to the experiment (i.e. images, videos, audio files, animations, PDF documents,etc.).

All users of ESA provided microgravity facilities are expected to contribute to the EEA. The EEA does not provide users with the means of uploading information themselves: this process is taken care of by the ESA/HSO-K team in collaboration with the Scientific Co-ordinators from HSO-AS. Users who wish to have material related to their experiments uploaded to the EEA, are requested to kindly submit all material via e-mail to the EEA content responsible at the following e-mail address:

andrea.conigli@esa.int
jacqueline.myrrhe@esa.int

Alternatively, you may also send material via normal mail to the following postal addresses:

EEA Team
Erasmus Centre
ESA-ESTEC
Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk
THE NETHERLANDS