Science News

The European Space Agency is looking at proposals for using the International Space Station as a platform for climate science, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain said on Thursday.

The “call for ideas” issued by the 18-nation agency last November expires on Monday, he added.

Seventeen proposals so far have been received “from the climate change community” for using the ISS as a basis for study, Dordain told a press conference.

“Potentially, the ISS can be used as an observation platform for instruments and experiments relevant to global change studies, supplementing ongoing and planned observations from dedicated platforms,” it says.

The ISS is scheduled to be completed this year, “offering a multi-purpose research facility in low orbit until at least 2015 and possibly beyond,” ESA says on its website.

Some space scientists are critical of the project, describing it as a cash burner that provides negligible value for money compared with unmanned missions.

Conceived as a manned outpost in orbit, the US-led ISS has run into huge cost overruns, with some estimates putting the final bill at around 100 billion dollars, and construction delays caused in part by the loss of two US space shuttles.

Highlights include the launch on February 7 of two more ISS modules, including a “cupola” that will provide the stations six crew members with a panoramic view of space.

Dordain was speaking at a New Years meeting with reporters to sketch the agencys work programme in 2010.

This year will also include the first launches of Russias Soyuz mid-range rocket from ESAs pad at Kourou, French Guiana, under a commercial arrangement with Arianespace, which markets the Ariane 5 heavy launcher.

On February 25, Cryosat 2, an ESA satellite designed to measure the thickness of ice, is to be launched by Russia from its base at Baikonur under a continuing programme of Earth observation.

A total of 3.744 billion euros (5.428 billion dollars) has been earmarked for 2010.

Turning to budget matters, Dordain said the agency intended to “stabilise” its spending after several years of annual increases of 10 percent.