Commercial access for UK/ESA student experiments on board the ISS

<div>School students in the US have the ability to</div><div>commercially fly experiments on-board the International Space</div><div>Station (ISS) via programmes like the Nanoracks sponsored</div><div>Student Spaceflight Experiment Program (SSEP). Programs like</div><div>SSEP do allow international schools to participate but similar</div><div>programmes do not currently exist within the European Space</div><div>Agency (ESA). ESA does, however, support commercial access to</div><div>space via companies like Airbus and Kayser Italia. A key principle</div><div>of SSEP is that students propose to fly experiments that will work</div><div>within existing spaceflight hardware. This is similar to the idea of</div><div>using standardized CubeSat platforms in education and ESA’s</div><div>long-standing use of standardized Experiment Containers (ECs).</div><div>These ECs form the starting point for Airbus and Kayser Italia’s</div><div>commercial access programmes. In 2018 we were selected by the</div><div>UK Space Agency to develop and fly a UK national payload to the</div><div>ISS. This payload will conduct scientific experiments proposed by</div><div>ourselves, international partners, and schools in the UK. All</div><div>experiments will take place inside ECs that are refurbished, and</div><div>flight qualified in the UK. If we can successfully conduct student</div><div>experiments during this mission, we will have demonstrated the</div><div>possibility of conducting UK student experiments in space via a</div><div>UK company. This should pave the way for UK-based commercial</div><div>access to the ISS that could be used by schools much like the US</div><div>based SSEP.</div>