The International Space Station (iss) will be the largest civil construction built by an international cooperation ever. It is a joint enterprise of the usa, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe. The space station eventually will span an area of 108 by 74 meter, weighing over 450 tonnes and providing 1200 cubic meter of conditioned housing. This volume consists of several compartments (modules) that are used as living quarters for the crew and as laboratories.
International Space Station (photo NASA)
One of the iss modules is a European contribution: the Columbus Orbital Facility, better known as Columbus. It is a sophisticated European space laboratory that will accommodate diverse branches of research.
Europe is also responsible for the development of the so called Automated Transfer Vehicle (atv). This is a kind of cargo shuttle lauched by the European Ariane 5 launcher. It can carry up to nine tonnes of cargo to the iss. Dutch Space provides the solar arrays for atv. Additionally Dutch Space provides the simulator of the atv-iss docking manoeuvre.
Another major contribution to the space station is the European Robotic Arm (era). Era is a huge robotic arm that can operate autonomously and will be used, among others, for maintenance activities outside the iss. Dutch Space was the main contractor for the era development.
