Fundamental physics research aboard the international space station

NASAs research plans aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are discussed. Experiments in low temperature physics and atomic physics are planned to commence in late 2005. Experiments in gravitational physics are planned to begin in 2007. A low temperature microgravity physics facility is under development for the low temperature and gravitation experiments. The facility provides a 2 K environment for two instruments and an experimental lifetime of 4.5 months. Each instrument will be capable of accomplishing a primary investigation and one or more guest investigations. Experiments on the first flight will study non-equilibrium phenomena near the superfluid 4He transition and measure scaling parameters near the 3He critical point. Experiments on the second flight will investigate boundary effects near the superfluid 4He transition and perform a red-shift test of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Follow-on flights of the facility will occur at 16 to 22-month intervals. The first couple of atomic physics experiments will take advantage of the free-fall environment to operate laser cooled atomic fountain clocks with 10-100 times better performance than any Earth based clock. These clocks will be used for experimental studies in General and Special Relativity. Flight definition experiment studies are underway by investigators studying Bose Einstein Condensates and use of atom interferometers as potential future flight candidates. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.