Airbus (www.airbus.com) has sent a new fluid experiment to the International Space Station (ISS).

FOAM-C, which was developed and manufactured for the European Space Agency (ESA), is scheduled to be activated this month by astronaut Jessica Meir, who has been on the ISS since September 2019.

The FOAM-C experiment is designed to study the stability of foams away from the influence of Earth’s gravity.

The scientists are interested in the behaviour of the foams at different liquid fractions and in particular around the point of un-jamming (the transition from a solid-like to liquid-like structure), which can only be studied in micro-gravity.

The FOAM-C experimental set-up comprises five segments, with a total of 20 small test cells containing a variety of liquid mixtures.

The Fluid Science Laboratory on the ISS Columbus module will automatically shake and analyse these mixtures, using complex laser optics, highly sensitive photo-diodes and high-resolution cameras that can take up to 10,000 images per sec.