NASA graphic illustrates Atlantis docked to the International Space Station, as shuttle's Canadarm grapples the Columbus module. (NASA)

The Fluid Science Laboratory, shown here, includes Canadian-built technology that cushions the experiments conducted on the lab from movement on or vibrations from the space station, allowing for more accurate tests of micro-gravity conditions. (NASA/ESA)

A European laboratory hitching a ride aboard the space shuttle Atlantis will be more than the latest piece of the International Space Station puzzle; it will also be the fulfillment of a research project that began 25 years ago.

Funding for the Columbus lab — estimated at $2 billion US — began in 1982, but the project has been delayed numerous times, most recently when construction of the space station was temporarily halted after the space shuttle Columbia was lost during re-entry in 2003 and the shuttle fleet was grounded.

So, while the arrival of the Columbus module is a major shot in the arm to the scientific capabilities of the orbiting space platform, it also represents another, more fundamental milestone: the beginning of a more prominent role for Europe.

Certainly mission STS-122, which began with the Feb. 7 launch of Atlantis from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, has a distinctly European flavour.

Not only is the European Space Agency behind the Columbus laboratory, it also has sent two of its astronauts aboard Atlantis to play key roles in the mission. Germany's Hans Schlegel will perform two of the crew's three spacewalks, while France's Leopold Eyharts will replace U.S. astronaut Daniel Tani as a member of the station's three-person crew and help run the Columbus experiments.

Canadian Space Agency project manager Stéphane Desjardins said Europe has always had a strong involvement in the space station, but that much of their involvement was in the Columbus lab.

"They've played a significant role," he said. "It's just so much of their work has been with Columbus, and the sequence of events has bumped it in the assembly queue."

Columbus also won't be Europe's only new involvement in the space station program: early next year Europe's first autonomous cargo spacecraft, dubbed the Jules Verne, will begin making regular runs to the station to bring food, air, water and other supplies.

"All of a sudden, we are a major player," Schlegel told the Associated Press. "We are a major contributor. It's really the beginning of a new time frame for Europe in human space flight."

The more prominent role for Europe comes as the United States winds down its involvement, with NASA planning to end the shuttle program in 2010 and pull out of the space station by 2015. It's an accelerated timetable that has forced NASA to concentrate less on scientific research aboard the station and more on constructing the station itself.

NASA's three previous shuttle missions this year have focused on delivering, moving and fixing a series of solar arrays that help power the station and delivering and installing the Harmony Node 2. Harmony was a major step: the first live-in compartment of the station added in six years, and a junction between the station's U.S.-built Destiny laboratory and the two future laboratories: Columbus, and the Japan-built Kibo, which will arrive over two trips next year.

The Atlantis mission

An artist's depiction of the exterior of the Columbus laboratory. The European-built module will host a number of experiments, both inside and outside the space station. (NASA)

That assembly process will continue on day four of the Atlantis crew's 11-day mission, when the station's Canadarm 2 will unload Columbus and attach it to Harmony with the help of two spacewalking astronauts: Schlegel and U.S. astronaut Rex Walheim.

Schlegel and Walheim will go for another spacewalk on the sixth day of the mission to replace a near-empty nitrogen tank assembly that acts as part of the station's thermal control system with a new full tank Atlantis will be delivering.

A third spacewalk, conducted by Walheim and fellow U.S. astronaut Stanley Love, will install two experiments to the exterior of Columbus. One, called SOLAR, will study solar-related phenomena. The other, the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF), will carry eight different experiments requiring exposure to space.

The other Atlantis crew members are commander Steve Frick, pilot Alan Poindexter and mission specialist Leland Melvin, all from the U.S.

The cylindrical-shaped Columbus laboratory is seven metres long and 4.5 metres in diameter. It will have room inside for 10 scientific workstations, though only five will be filled when the lab arrives aboard Atlantis.

As with many of the experiments conducted aboard the U.S. Destiny Lab, the Columbus experiments will focus on the health implications of living in space. One lab module supports experiments on micro-organisms, while another will host experiments looking into the effects of long-duration space flight on the human body. Two other internal payload racks on the laboratory are more multi-purpose, providing storage and work room for other experiments.

Canadian contribution

A fifth workspace, the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), will study fluids in a weightless environment, which ESA scientists hope will benefit practical research on Earth into cleaning oil spills or manufacturing optical lenses.

The FSL includes the Canadian Space Agency's contribution to the laboratory: the Microgravity Vibration Isolation Subsystem (MVIS). It's the latest version of technology designed to allow experiments to be conducted in low gravity without interference from vibrations produced by the space station itself; a high-tech bubble that allows experiments to run more smoothly.

Essentially, the MVIS monitors the position of the core element of the lab and is armed with an extremely sensitive accelerometer that can chart movement or vibration aboard the station. If the MVIS detects even a slight perturbation or misalignment, it compensates to keep the additional movement out of the experiment. Because of the ease with which fluids move, fluid science experiments are particularly prone to these kinds of perturbations in movement, said Desjardins, a project manager with the Canadian Space Agency.

Desjardins likens the way it works to the way a person walking down the street can keep a cup of coffee steady and not spill a drop: by subtly adjusting the angle and motion of the cup to compensate for the up-and-down motion the rest of the body performs while walking.

The technology behind the MVIS has been working in space since its first incarnation was installed on the Mir space station, the Russian space platform that operated until 2001.

Canada's next major contribution to the station, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, will happen aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch five weeks after Atlantis launches.

Dextre will act as the hand for the Canadarm 2 or will work on its own, providing a greater degree of movement than possible with the robotic arm. NASA and its partners hope the addition of the device will decrease the need for astronauts to conduct spacewalks for repair and maintenance work.

But for now, the focus of those at the Canadian Space Agency who worked on the MVIS will be the arrival of the Columbus lab, a project that for a number of scientists, in Canada and Europe, has been a long time coming.

"We've waited for the longest time for Columbus to go up," said Desjardins. "The team that developed it is really proud that it's finally happening."

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