Columbus, the European Physiology Modules Facility and CADMOS

Columbus, the European Space Agency (ESA) orbital facility laboratory will be launched in December 2007 and attached to the International Space Station (ISS). In its launch configuration, Columbus includes 4 multi-user facilities: one of them is the European Physiology Modules Facility, also called EPM. The EPM will be devoted to Human Physiology; it will be collocated in the Columbus module with two other physiology racks, i.e. the HRF-1 and HRF-2 American racks (Human Research Facility). CADMOS is part of the French Space Agency, located in Toulouse; it has been designated by the European Space Agency as the Facility Responsible Centre (FRC) for the EPM. As a User Support and Operations Centre, CADMOS main tasks are to help the scientists to prepare and perform their experiments in Space and to monitor operations on the ISS.