French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to continue experiments on foams

Space foam. First photograph of foam taken in the ISS, March 9, 2020 © ESA - Studying how liquid foams evolve over time is difficult, if not impossible, on Earth because of gravity. The FOAM-C experiment, which began in 2020, was designed to study liquid foams in zero gravity on board the ISS. New samples will be set up by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on Friday, June 11. The FOAM-C experiment studies the properties of liquid foams in zero gravity. It aims to uncover valuable information about the behaviour of such foams, which, often used in solid form, find a wide variety of applications, such as heat insulation and sound proofing, water purification, firefighting, cosmetics, etc. The experiment, which began last year on board the International Space Station (ISS) and is being carried out on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), was designed by an international research team including scientists from the CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université and Université Gustave Eiffel, with the support of the French space agency CNES.