ACCEPTED EXPERIMENTS

POLAR-2: Gamma-Ray Burst Polarimetry on the China Space Station

POLAR-2 will build on a previous investigation from Tiangong-2 and will continue the study of gamma-ray bursts. This astronomy project involves four institutions from four countries: the University of Geneva, Switzerland; the National Centre for Nuclear Research, Poland; the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING)

The SING instrument’s primary goal is to generate spectral maps of the sky using an ultraviolet long-slit spectrograph, though it will be constrained by the orbital inclination of the space station. This experiment will be carried out by two institutions from two countries: the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Behaviour of Partially Miscible Fluids in Microgravity

This research will investigate how fluids mix under different temperature and microgravity conditions. It will be implemented by the Indian Institute of Technology and the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium.

Flame Instabilities Affected by Vortices and Acoustic Waves (FIAVAW)

This is an experiment in microgravity fluid physics and combustion. It will investigate the fundamental problems of flame stabilisation in a convective flow. This research is of particular importance to aircraft and rocket engine combustion, as well as fire safety issues in space. It will be jointly carried out by Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and the University of Tokyo, Japan.

Tumours in Space: Signatures of early mutational events due to spaceflight conditions on 3D organoid cultures derived from intra-individual healthy and tumour tissue

This will study the effect of gravity on tumours, looking at whether tumours stop growing in microgravity conditions, and also assess the impact of cosmic radiation on cancer risk for astronauts on long space missions, such as a trip to Mars.

Effect of Microgravity on the Growth and Biofilm Production of Disease-Causing Bacteria

This will investigate the differences between the growth and biofilm production of bacterial colonies grown on Earth and those on board the space station. Biofilms are a collective of one or more types of microorganism that can grow on a variety of surfaces – an example being biofilm dental plaque, which is a buildup of bacteria on the surfaces of teeth.