1999
Space milestones
Muscle strength becomes an experiment
Kayser develops and delivers to ESA the Hand Grip Dynamometer and Pinch Force Dynamometer, instruments designed to measure astronauts’ hand grip and finger pinch strength. The company thus expands its activities in human physiology, with compact devices that collect data useful for studying how the body changes during a stay in space.
Chandra is launched
The Chandra X-ray Observatory takes a new generation of instruments into space to observe black holes, neutron stars and cosmic gas through their X-ray emissions.
Missions & Payloads
FOTON 12
15-day orbital mission with a recoverable capsule. It carries a wide range of European experiments dedicated to biological and physical research in microgravity.
GABRIEL 2
Experimental module dedicated to studying boiling in microgravity and the effect of an electric field on heat transfer. It comprises two boiling chambers, each equipped with high-voltage electrodes and a CCD camera to observe bubble formation, growth and detachment. The module has a mass of approximately 57 kg and a length of 661 mm. Aboard MASER-8, the experiment uses FC-72 fluid to study boiling behaviour under stable microgravity conditions.
MASER 8
Suborbital mission launched from the Esrange Space Center, dedicated to five experiments in microgravity. It hosts the second flight of the GABRIEL payload, designed to study boiling and heat transfer under reduced gravity.
BIOPAN 3
ESA platform installed outside the Foton-12 capsule, designed to expose biological samples directly to the space environment. Once orbit is reached, the motorised lid is opened by a command from Earth, exposing the experiments to vacuum, solar ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays under microgravity conditions. Before re-entry, the lid closes again to protect the samples from heat. The facility has a diameter of approximately 38 cm, a mass of around 27–30 kg and can accommodate up to 3.5 kg of experiments. Among those on board is VITAMIN, dedicated to studying the effects of radiation and the effectiveness of radioprotective substances. The platform is designed and built for ESA by Kayser-Threde, with Kayser Italia and TsSKB-Progress as subcontractors.
FLUIDPAC
Automatic facility for advanced fluid physics experiments. It has precision thermal control and optical instruments to observe convection, boiling, heat transfer and phenomena related to surface tension. Designed to conduct several experiments autonomously during uncrewed missions, it makes its debut on Foton-12, hosting MAGIA, TRAMP and BAMBI. The facility is developed by a consortium led by Verhaert Space; Kayser contributes to the Peltier systems for thermal control.