Paris, June 23 ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Frank De Winne, in a live link-up with the ISS (International Space Station), scheduled for September 21, will perform a simple experiment in space to demonstrate the effects of freefall.

The event is enabled by ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight and its Erasmus Centre and will be co-hosted by four European science museums.

The 'Take your classroom into space' activity is one of several education activities planned during De Winne's ongoing six-month OasISS mission on the International Space Station (ISS). e Winne is part of a crew of six living and working on the ISS.

De Winne will perform the curriculum-relevant demonstration inside the European Columbus laboratory using a standalone education kit.

The experiment was selected from ideas proposed by European educators in response to a call for experiments that can be carried out on the ISS to demonstrate the effects of freefall.

One of the two best experiment ideas, which were proposed independently by five teachers, 'Do objects have weight in space?' and 'Exploring Capillarity' will be demonstrated by De Winne during the live link-up.

Using the 'Take your classroom into space' Education Kit, which contains all the elements needed to perform the same demonstrations on the ground, secondary school students (14 to 18 years old) will compare their results with those obtained by De Winne in space, helping them to learn about the conditions of freefall.

During the live link-up with the Station, De Winne will also answer questions from the students.

The event will be co-hosted by four European science museums and centres located close to the home cities of the five teachers who proposed the winning 'Take your classroom into space' ideas. (ANI)