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
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Airbus business development manager Matthijs van der Kooij operated the Random Positioning Machine (RPM) at Leiden Bio Science Park. RPM was developed by the Dutch office of Airbus for ESA to do experiment in zero or reduced gravity here on Earth without going into space. The RPM rotates any enclosed experiment ‘randomly’ to minimise the influence of Earth’s gravity, thereby simulating what would be experienced in space. The original models could successfully simulate zero gravity, typically referred to as microgravity. The newer RPM 2.0 can additionally simulate partial gravity, which is between 0g and 1g.