ISS

I am learning to locate the main ideas within the text.

I will have been successful in my reading when:

• I have read each of these articles
• I have written two or three complete paragraphs to summarise the key ideas within these three articles.

The International Space Station (ISS) is used for many scientific experiments. Taking advantage of weightlessness conditions in orbit, scientists are able to study many things that cannot easily be studied on Earth.The Columbus lab is ESA's main contribution to the ISS. About 6.5 metres long and 4.5 metres wide, the cylinder-shaped lab enables up to three astronauts to work in pleasant, shirtsleeve conditions. Biolab, where experiments take place on cell tissues, small plants and animals

• A Fluid Science Laboratory, in which scientists study the behaviour of liquids in weightlessness
• A facility to study the properties of metals
• Modules where the effects of microgravity on the human body are studied

Other experiments are placed on platforms outside Columbus. Two ESA astronauts, Léopold Eyharts of France and Hans Schlegel of Germany, were on board to install and activate the lab.

Setting up an experiment in the European Columbus laboratory Construction of the International Space Station, the largest object ever to orbit Earth, is now almost completed. One of the main areas of interest is biological research.ESA’s Biolab is used for experiments on micro-organisms, cells, tissue cultures, small plants and small invertebrates, such as worms and crayfish.