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Experiments destined for the International Space Station (ISS) have been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA).

24. 04. 2025

In cooperation with other ministries, the Ministry of Transport has selected 14 experiments to be operated on the ISS by Czech astronaut Aleš Svoboda. The topics range from physiology to demonstrators of new technologies, and activities for the wider public are also included. Although the experiments are mostly related to basic research, they will subsequently bring benefits for space and terrestrial applications. Some should reach the ISS before the start of the mission of Czech astronaut Ales Svoboda in late 2027, others will fly directly with him.

The list of recommended experiments, along with a number of additional conditions, will be sent by the Ministry of Transport to the European Space Agency (ESA) later this week. According to the Czech instructions, ESA will then conduct negotiations with the project promoters with the aim of concluding contracts for their implementation by the beginning of summer. “We need to start working on the production of the experiments as soon as possible so that the first of the instruments will be ready to be carried to the International Space Station ISS as early as 2027. They should be ready before the mission of the Czech astronaut Aleš Svoboda, which we expect at the turn of 2027 and 2028,” Transport Minister Martin Kupka said.

The opportunity to conduct scientific research, technology demonstration and educational activities on board the ISS was of great interest. Last year’s survey of interest in these types of projects yielded 70 ideas. This is more than the call for projects in neighbouring three times more populous Poland, which will send an astronaut into space at the end of May.

Thanks also to the feedback on these diverse proposals, 25 mostly high-quality project applications were further developed and submitted to the tender in the second round. They were first evaluated by ESA experts, who issued a technical opinion and a set of recommendations on each one. This was then worked with by the members of the Czech Committee, which manages the implementation of the programme “Framework project for the implementation of the support to be provided by ESA to space-related activities in the Czech Republic” on the Czech side, selecting a balanced set of experiments that takes into account the specifics of the ISS, the available test infrastructure, the allowed mass and volume, the efficiency of astronaut time, etc.

“The highest scoring was the wristwatch dosimeter, which will help improve astronaut safety by accurately monitoring exposure to ionizing radiation, contributing valuable data for future space exploration efforts. The experiment thus paves the way to Mars, where radiation is our greatest enemy and our biggest unsolved problem. Several experiments have the ambition to improve the life support systems of future spacecraft and others are investigating the impact of the space environment, especially microgravity, in layman’s terms weightlessness, and radiation on the human body,” says Václav Kobera, chairman of the committee and coordinator of the national project Czech Journey to Space. Other experiments will contribute to research on cancer, fertility or food resilience to climate change.

“Purely physical and engineering experiments are typically less suited to serving an astronaut, which was evident in this selection. Their implementation was recommended by both ESA and the Committee through the external Bartolomeo platform, for which an ESA-specific call for this type of project is planned for the turn of the year. Thus, paradoxically, these experiments may even reach the ISS earlier than with Ales Svoboda,” says programme manager Ondřej Rohlík.

The committee also recommended a proposal to implement a set of educational activities during which Ales Svoboda will introduce the public to various phenomena that are unimaginable on Earth.

In the next few days, the Ministry of Transport will send a list of recommended experiments to ESA, together with instructions on what needs to be changed – verified, improved, reduced, simplified and in some cases omitted altogether – typically due to the limited capacity of laboratory equipment on the ISS, where some instruments are booked up to five years in advance, i.e. until the end of the station’s lifetime, or due to the overall weight or volume. On Ales Svoboda’s mission, everything needs to be squeezed into about 50 litres of volume and 15 kilograms of weight. It is therefore likely that the recommended projects will not be implemented exactly as proposed and that many of them will undergo major changes during the preparations with ESA. This is because various physical, technical, operational or safety constraints require it.

Interestingly, several of the proposals are ready to use laboratory equipment that companies have transported to the ISS as commercial equipment, such as the German incubator Yuri Science Taxi or the Belgian plug-and-play system International Commercial Experiment Cubes (ICE Cubes).

  • The Committee recommended ESA to negotiate the specific form of the contract with the proponents of the following experiments (in alphabetical order):
  • AstroDesmus, which will test extremophile microalgae for their resistance to chlorate and ability to accumulate heavy metals,
  • AstroMoWe, which will monitor and analyse astronauts’ movement and muscle activity,
  • CANCER, which will focus on the study of immune system behaviour and virus reactivation,
  • CARE, which will investigate the short-term effects of microgravity on growth, metabolite production, and gene expression of microalgae,
  • CONREX, which will test magnetic nano and microrobots on the ISS,
  • CryoAlgae, which will investigate the effect of space conditions on oxygen production, growth, metabolomic profile, and morphology of two strains of extremophilic microalgae from cryospheric habitats, while also investigating increases in lipid accumulation,
  • CZPAD, which will use a specially modified dosimeter to measure the radiation dose from neutrons slowed by water in the astronaut’s body,
  • EDOUTA, a comprehensive set of activities for students, teachers, and the public, including educational materials, live astronaut interactions, and creative projects,
  • ICARUS ARMOR Next Gen, which will create a personalized digital twin model to predict astronauts’ cognitive performance under cumulative stress,
  • ISS T-shirt, which will monitor stress levels using novel thermodynamic metrics,
  • METRO, which will investigate gas transfer control in microgravity for efficient long-term operation of space photobioreactors,
  • PROTOCELL, which will test the ability to form and function protocells using liquid droplets,
  • PUMR-B, which will investigate the effect of microgravity on spring barley development and its adaptation to dry and hot environments,
  • ZOE, which will test whether a fertile individual will form during embryonic development under microgravity and cosmic ray conditions.

We consider it important to encourage young people to study science and engineering. In addition to strengthening and modernising the national economy through space activities, the national project Czech Journey to Space also aims to send a Czech astronaut into space and to motivate young people to study engineering. The selection of experiments is another important step after the selection of young ambassadors of the Czech space programme. These young people are in many ways undergoing similar training to Aleš Svoboda, a Czech member of the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut reserve team, and have undertaken, for example, a joint parabolic flight on 30 March 2025.