School pupils undertake an oil emulsion experiment via live link with the ISS

This experiment was carried out by school pupils (11-14 years old) on Earth and by Thomas Reiter during Astrolab. The space section of ‘Oil Emulsion’ was filmed and downlinked. This experiment highlights how an oil and water emulsion behaves differently in weightlessness and on Earth. A sealed container holding two immiscible fluids, clear oil and ink-coloured water, were shaken until the two fluids slightly mixed. The fluids’ behavior in space were filmed within defined time slots during a two week test. The data was downlinked and the results were shown in a children's programme on German public television. The different kinds of segregation that occured during the experiment, in space and on Earth, could be observed and explained by teachers. The Oil Emulsion experiment was introduced by DLR and is a cooperation between the German and European space agencies.