The challenge of the EuroMir 95 technology experiments

Microbiological sampling techniques, earth-radiation-environment monitoring, gas-contaminant bio-filtering tools, multimedia communications technology, passive magnetic-levitation techniques for fluid-dynamics study, robotics-technology development, gas-sensor systems and analysis tools for human kinematics in microgravity--all were a part of the truly multidisciplinary Technology Experiments package flown aboard the record-breaking EuroMir 95 mission. Final processing and evaluation of the vast amount of data gathered from the experiments will not be completed until the end of the year--work is currently in progress at nine different centres throughout Europe--and this article therefore provides but a first glimpse of the mission's many findings and their implications for long-term manned spaceflight in the context of the International Space Station.