ULISSE

The USOCs KnowLedge Integration and dissemination for Space Science Experimentation

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The ULISSE project is conceived by a network of centers already operative in space experimentation. This network is mainly based on the European USOCs including a number of research centers and companies. The USOCs (User Support and Operation Centers) are a network of centres engaged by the European Space Agency (ESA) in various EU countries to support the operations for scientific experiments on board the International Space Station. ESA recognised the unique expertise of the USOCs in space experimentation; in fact, USOCs personnel has a sound scientific background, participate in research projects and realise a large number of space experiments, consolidating experience on scientific space payloads and related operations. In addition, USOCs have well-established liaisons with the scientific community, with national public institutions and with European industries. These competences and resources make the USOCs network particularly able to generate value from space experiments. The ULISSE project proposes to exploit this network of competences and resources to complement the on-going activities of payload operations on the ISS with new initiatives aimed at increasing the return of scientific space activities. For this purpose, ULISSE intends to pursue the valorisation and exploitation of ISS scientific data and of the already available data from previous space experiments as well as data from other space platforms, increasing the involvement of specialized community and the awareness of general public. ULISSE will provide scientific and technical data concerning most scientific disciplines, as Life Sciences including Space Medicine and Exobiology, Biotechnology, Material and Fluid Sciences. The data will be integrated with specific services and tools for their exploitation through a middleware platform. The project will include dissemination activities: scientific as well as divulgative publications, public events, educational activities on space research.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Space science experimentation and its results can now be accessed much more readily by stakeholders, enhancing the European Research Area (ERA) and the continent's knowledge economy.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Representing the largest space programme in operation, the International Space Station (ISS) has helped produce large amounts of important research and data about our world. This achievement has been supported by the European User Support & Operation Centres (USOCs) for the ISS, thanks to their strong links among all stakeholders in space research. Against this backdrop, the EU-funded project 'The USOCs knowledge integration and dissemination for space science experimentation' (ULISSE) improved how research results from the ISS and other space platforms are exploited.

The project team surveyed users and analysed their needs to understand how to improve the use of emerging data. It aimed at documenting and harmonising legal constraints for disseminating ISS data, identifying high-tech tools to manage knowledge efficiently and exploit data effectively. The endeavour involved creation of a research project catalogue. Defining a metadata standard helped describe experiments in the catalogue.

ULISSE also established a portal to promote the project and involve the user community. It developed a set of online services through this portal that supports searching, browsing and managing knowledge bases. Specifically, the portal has been established to provide scientific and technical data concerning most scientific disciplines, from space medicine and exobiology to biotechnology and materials sciences.

Overall, the project team proved that building an e-infrastructure for scientific data preservation and exploitation is feasible, and can become a valuable tool for research. This will pave the way for a more sophisticated research mechanism that will support space research and strengthen the European knowledge economy, with direct benefits for scientific productivity and education. The project's http://www.ulisse-space.eu (website) has a private area for users.