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Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC)

 

Columbus (ISS) Control Center
 
MASCOT Control Center (MCC)

The Microgravity User Support Center in Cologne is a co-operative facility of two scientific institutes, Aerospace Medicine, Materials Science and Space Operations and Astronaut Training. MUSC operates major equipment for the scientific use of space in the disciplines of materials science, biological and extraterrestrial sciences and technology. The center qualifies space experiments for their certification of flight readiness, supports operation during flight with the necessary infrastructure (e.g. with on ground science reference models of flight units, and ground support computing systems) and after each successful mission makes archived data accessible for users throughout Europe. In parallel, future mission targets are being investigated and development of new experimental and measurement processes takes place. Concerning data system development, user-oriented command, data acquisition and archiving systems for space experiments are provided.

MUSC runs two control centers, the ISS Control Center for facility operations on board the International Space Station (ISS) and the Lander Control Center for the HP³ tasks of the Mars Mission InSight and preparations for the Phobos Mission MMX.

The International Space Station (ISS) is the world’s largest research facility for experiments under microgravity conditions. The ground infrastructure required for the scientific utilization of ISS facilities is distributed over various European User Support and Operations Centers (USOCs). With emphasis on the disciplines of biological sciences and materials physics, the MUSC in Cologne implemented the German USOC for support of research under microgravity conditions on board the ISS. Besides this, pilot experiments are tested on short-term microgravity missions in order to develop new facility concepts.

The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission to Mars will see the long-harboured wishes of planetary scientists come true, in the form
of a geophysical observatory on a terrestrial planet.

 

Parabolic Flights


In the MUSC, space experiments are qualified for their certification of flight readiness, their operation during flight is supported with the necessary infrastructure (e.g. with science reference models on ground, and ground support computing systems) and post successful mission, data is publicised in European archives. In parallel, future mission targets are being investigated and development of new experimental and measurement processes takes place. Concerning data systems, user-oriented data acquisition and command systems for experiments in space are provided.
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Experiments on the International Space Station


Responsibility for the payload- and experiment-related mission planning, mission execution and data management is administered in decentralised scientific centers across Europe known as European User Support Centers. In this network, the MUSC is integrated as the leading European User Support center. MUSC operates the space station facilities Biolab, Expose, DOSIS, Materials Science Lab (MSL), FASTER (Facility for Absorption and Surface Tension) and EML (Electromagnetic Levitator) by order of ESA.
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Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission


Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. These are the target of the Japanese Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, which also involves international partners. The spacecraft will carry a German-French rover that will land on either Phobos or Deimos and explore the surface in detail for several months.
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Mars mission InSight


The Mars mission InSight is landed on 26 November 2018. With InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport), the geophysical properties of Mars will be investigated.
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Virtual Control Room


The „Virtual Control Room“ is a feature with access to some selected telemetry data for the Missions MASCOT, InSight, ROSETTA, MSL (ISS) and EXPOSE (ISS), coming straight from the control rooms of the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC).
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Contact
Prof. Dr. Rainer Willnecker
MUSC

German Aerospace Center

Space Operations and Astronaut Training

Köln-Porz

Tel.: +49 2203 601-3563

Fax: +49 2203 61471

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