Celebrating 20 Years of KUBIK

16-17
April 2025

ESA-ESTEC
Noorwijk, the Netherlands

Why attend...

To celebrate this milestone in a festive symposium, gathering scientists, engineers, and operators of KUBIK over the years. Attention will be given to the successful design philosophy, the scientific experiments performed, as well as the future perspectives in an era which will see more attention for commercial experimentation, as well as an outlook of exploration of moon and Mars.

Ideas

Results

Perspective

How far we have come...

On 19 April 2004 the first two KUBIK space incubators were launched together with ESA astronaut André Kuipers to the International Space Station [ISS] as part of the Delta mission. Now, 20 years later, KUBIK has become one of the best used and most productive facilities flown on the ISS.

Designed from the onset of low-cost and flexibility, KUBIK has proven itself in supporting almost 60 (!) biological experiments in space on human and animal cells, and cell-lines, bacteria, small animals, plants, and other species. Regularly upgraded for increasing performance, in total 7 different KUBIKs have flown on the ISS. In fact, over the past 20 years there has hardly been a period that no Kubik was on board. In 2007 two KUBIKs were moved to Columbus and have been on duty there ever since.