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ICE Cubes Service

ICE Cubes Service is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand ICE Cubes Service rather than just read about it. In short: The International Commercial Experiment Cubes (ICE Cubes) service is a commercial service that offers access to space for research, technology and education. It allows public or private entities to run their experiments on board the International Space Station for access to microgravity.

ICE Cubes Service — main illustration
ICE Cubes Service — illustration

Key takeaways

  • ICE Cubes Service belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect ICE Cubes Service to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of ICE Cubes Service from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The International Commercial Experiment Cubes (ICE Cubes) service is a commercial service that offers access to space for research, technology and education. It allows public or private entities to run their experiments on board the International Space Station for access to microgravity. Examples of potential fields of research include pharmaceutical development, microbiology, stem cells, radiation, materials science, 3D printing, fluid sciences, and art. The service also allows to demonstrate and validate technologies in microgravity.

Overview The ICE Cubes Service stems from a commercial agreement between Space Applications Services and the European Space Agency (ESA). The ICE Cubes Facility (ICF) is the first European commercial research facility in the ISS. It was installed in June 2018 and it houses modular experiments on different disciplines. Researchers have continuous live remote access to their payloads via Internet to directly read data and send commands.

History From June 2015 to January 2018, the ICE Cubes Facility (ICF) was developed, manufactured, assembled and tested by Space Applications Services in Belgium, partially under a European Union Horizon 2020 grant. On 21 May 2018, the ICF was launched with a Cygnus Spacecraft (CRS OA-9E mission). On 6 June 2018, NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold installed the facility into the EPM rack inside the European Columbus module. The first experiments (so-called "Experiment Cubes") were launched on the SpaceX Dragon supply vessel and then installed inside the ICF by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. They included science, technology and art projects provided by the International Space University (ISU) and international collaborators. In parallel, a partnership agreement for the launch and exploitation in orbit of the ICF was signed with ESA on 20 June 2017, and the first European Commercial Access Service to the ISS officially opened its doors for business.

One of the ISU Experiment Cubes, Hydra-2, was a research experiment on methane-producing microorganisms to investigate their activity in microgravity conditions. Researchers hope these microorganisms could be used for biomining of asteroids to produce methane to fuel future space missions. Hydra-2 returned to Earth in January 2019. The second International Space University cube was an interactive art installation. The artistic cube contained a kaleidoscope linked to an installation on the ground that is activated by the heart pulse of participants. The images produced by the device are then sent down to the ground installation on Earth and displayed in real-time. The other experiment is RUSH, a technology demonstration payload for radiation tolerant electronics. Hydra-3 is still hosted inside the ICF.

Successive experiments studied some aspects of plant germination, demonstration of spectroscopic diagnostics and recovery of cybersecurity functions on commercial electronics in space. In March 2019, ICE Cubes became an implementation partner at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), a non-profit organization that manages the ISS United States National Laboratory. In October 2019, UK Science Minister Chris Skidmore announced the launch by the UK Space Agency of a contest to identity and match-fund business ideas taking advantage of space. ICE Cubes was chosen as one of the hosts for the launch of the selected projects. In December 2020, Cube#6 - Kirara was launched on SpaceX CRS-21 and installed in the ICF. JAMSS's Kirara-2 is the first experiment for COVID-19 drug discovery research on the International Space Station. It tests a COVID-19 medicine in microgravity in order to better understand how remdesivir interacts with its delivery substance cyclodextrin so that the drug's efficiency can be improved.

The ICF and the Experiment Cubes The ICE Cubes Facility is mostly composed of the ICE Cubes Container, which is permanently housed into the EPM rack, and of the ICE Cubes Framework, which hosts the Experiment Cubes. The Framework can slide in and out of the Container, and the Experiment Cubes are simply plugged onto the Framework, which minimizes the crew time for installation/removal. The ICF provides the Experiment Cubes with two power lines, real-time and differed communications (via internet), and temperature regulation (forced air flow). The Experiment Cubes can be built with commercial off-the-shelf products and be integrated together to permit larger experiments. The ICF can accommodate up to twenty "plug-and-play" 1U (10x10x10 cm) Experiment Cubes or a smaller number of larger ones within the ICF Containers, plus some additional Experiment Cubes inside the Columbus cabin, either wired or via Wi-Fi.

References

External links ICE Cubes website

Illustrations

ICE Cubes Service illustration
ICE Cubes Service: Image of the ICE Cubes facility in the ISS' Columbus module.[6] In this picture, the ICF Framework is half out of the ICF Container and three 1U Experiment Cubes are plugged onto the Framework.
Image of the ICE Cubes facility in the ISS' Columbus module.[6] In this picture, the ICF Framework is half out of the ICF Container and three 1U Experiment Cubes are plugged onto the Framework.
ICE Cubes Service: In this image is the Training Model installed on the EPM Training Model experiment rack at ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Germany.
In this image is the Training Model installed on the EPM Training Model experiment rack at ESA's European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Germany.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with ICE Cubes Service

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what ICE Cubes Service claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to ICE Cubes Service before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about ICE Cubes Service ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of ICE Cubes Service

In research
ICE Cubes Service appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses ICE Cubes Service in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
ICE Cubes Service is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Space agencies, Space industry companies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for ICE Cubes Service outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study ICE Cubes Service in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what ICE Cubes Service means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain ICE Cubes Service out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is ICE Cubes Service in simple terms?

The International Commercial Experiment Cubes (ICE Cubes) service is a commercial service that offers access to space for research, technology and education. It allows public or private entities to run their experiments on board the International Space Station for access to microgravity.

Why does ICE Cubes Service matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study ICE Cubes Service?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on ICE Cubes Service.

Tags

  • Space agencies
  • Space industry companies

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