It’s happening!! 🚀
After years in the making, ups and downs, laughter and tears, SCAMPI is going to space on 13 October!
An ecosystem with Three Hawaiian red shrimp, a strand of macroalgae, and millions of microbes will launch from Florida to the International Space Station, sealed inside a jar the size of your hand.
For 90 days, this tiny closed ecosystem will live entirely on its own inside the ISS. Producers, consumers, and decomposers cycling nutrients between them, testing whether an entire living community can survive microgravity, without astronaut interference.
Every long journey away from Earth will depend on taking a piece of the living world with us. SCAMPI is a step toward bioregenerative life support, closed biological systems that could one day recycle air, water, and provide food for astronauts on the Moon, Mars and beyond!
Fifty-one students from 11 European and US institutions designed, built, and tested SCAMPI with the support of the Education Office of the European Space Agency, under the ESA Academy Experiments Programme.
In less than two weeks from now, SCAMPI will fly to space.
Read more here: [link to press release]