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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Space research can be conducted in a school laboratory. Students aged between 10 and 18 years are invited to investigate the Blob, a naturally-occurring slime mould, or Physarum polycephalum, that is capable of basic forms of learning and adaptation.
Blob is neither plant, nor animal, nor mushroom. Composed of just one cell and without a brain, it is still able to move, feed, organise itself and even transmit knowledge to like-minded slime moulds.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will conduct an experiment on the International Space Station to see how the Blob’s behaviour is affected by microgravity. Students will replicate the experiment in their classrooms, comparing their results to a timelapse video from space, to see differences in the Blob’s speed, shape and growth.
Blob is an educational experiment ran by France's space agency CNES.