The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Roscosmos astronaut Yelena Serova on the International Space Station with a Russian experiment November 2014.
Polymers are repeated molecules that form many materials we use every day, such as rubber and nylon. Rubber is a natural polymer but polymers can also be created synthetically using chemical reactions to string together monomers into new structures.
In the weightlessness of space, these reactions can be tailored to create polymer walls that form shells. The experiment demonstrates this method of creating polymers in space as well as improving computer models and offering a striking illustration of physics and chemistry in action for educational purposes.
The experiment is being run in a contained glovebox and features two hardening processes to ‘set’ the end structures.