Bartolomeo

The Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe will be installed on the Bartolomeo platform, located outside the Columbus module on the International Space Station. Named after Christopher Columbus’s younger brother, the platform became operational during ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer’s spacewalk in March 2022, when he connected the final power and data cables on the platform.

As the hardware arrives at the International Space Station a few weeks before the Huginn mission, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen will most likely be the one to unpack it and install it on the new Bartolomeo platform. The experiment will be placed in the Japanese airlock and the Space Station’s robotic arm will move and install it on Bartolomeo.

Bartolomeo is made by Airbus and can host experiments as large as a dishwasher. Experiments will have a view of Earth or space depending on their orientation, with some locations on the platform also having a clear view in the direction of travel of the Space Station. Each experiment will have power and data connections.

The Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe experiment is made by the University of Oslo, Norway, and Eidsvoll Electronics from Norway, and supported by ESA through the GSTP programme, for promising spaceflight concepts.