ICE Cubes from Malta and Belgium

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is sharing scenes from life on board the International Space Station during his second mission “Alpha”. He shared this video on social media with the caption:

“Inside these little cubes are two great experiments including Malta's first spaceflight! Offering inexpensive commercial access to the European Columbus, the ICE Cubes as they are called, allow for everybody to get involved in space. Malta for their first experiment is looking at bacteria taken from the skin of diabetes patients to learn more about how they grow and how to treat them. Diabetes is a serious and common illness on Earth so this experiment makes a lot of sense to me. Project Maleth’s SpaceOMIX also includes artwork from 1000s of children that will be digitally sent back to Earth, how cute is that? Welcome to space Malta, it was a pleasure to set you up! :) The other box is from the University of Hasselt in Belgium to test a new quantum-based measurement device to map Earth's magnetic field with more precision than ever before. Imagine graduating from University with that on your résumé!”

Over 200 experiments are planned during Thomas’ time in space, with 40 European ones and 12 new experiments led by the French space agency CNES.

Latest updates on the Alpha mission can be found via @esaspaceflight on Twitter, with more details on ESA’s exploration blog via thomaspesquet.esa.int.

Background information on the Alpha mission is available at www.esa.int/MissionAlpha with a brochure at www.esa.int/AlphaBrochure.