On November 3, France2, one of the main French television channels, broadcast various Medialab animations. Several sequences of the Aurora programme were shown during an item explaining the MELIiSSA project. Medialab are involved in both programmes, providing graphic design and 3D visualization.
Aurora is the European Programme for the Exploration of the Solar System by the European Space Agency. Aurora is ESA’s first step into human space exploration outside of the low Earth orbits used for the Russian space station MIR and the International Space Station (ISS). With this programme ESA will embark on a long-term plan for human exploration of space, with Mars as its main objective and the Moon a very likely intermediate step. http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Aurora/index.html
The MELIiSSA project is part of ESA's Advanced Life Support programme. MELIiSSA (Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative) has been conceived as an ecosystem based on micro-organisms and plants, intended as a tool to gain understanding of the behaviour of artificial ecosystems, and for the development of the technology for a future regenerative life support system for long term manned space missions, e.g. a lunar base or a mission to Mars.
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