ADVANCED USER SUPPORT PROGRAM - TEMPUS IML-2

The DLR Microgravity User Support Centre (MUSC) in Cologne has support ed microgravity experiments in the field of materials and life science s since 1979. In the beginning of user support activities, MUSC tasks comprised the basic ground and mission support, whereas present progra mmes are expanded on, for example, powerful telescience and advanced r eal time data acquisition capabilities for efficient experiment operat ion and monitoring. In view of the Space Station era, user support fun ctions will increase further. Additional tasks and growing responsibil ities must be covered, e.g. extended science support as well as experi ment and facility operations. The user support for TEMPUS IML-2, under contract of the German Space Agency DARA, represents a further step t owards the required new generation of future ground programme. TEMPUS is a new highly sophisticated Spacelab multi-user facility for contain erless processing of metallic samples. Electromagnetic levitation tech nique is applied and various experiment diagnosis tools are offered. E xperiments from eight U.S. and German investigator groups have been se lected for flight on the second International Microgravity Laboratory Mission IML-2 in 1994. Based on the experience gained in the research programme of the DLR Institute for Space Simulation since 1984, MUSC i s performing a comprehensive experiment preparation programme in close collaboration with the investigator teams. Complex laboratory equipme nt has been built up for technology and experiment preparation develop ment. New experiment techniques have been developed for experiment ver ification tests. The MUSC programme includes thorough analysis and tes ting of scientific requirements of every proposed experiment with resp ect to the facility hard- and software capabilities. In addition, stud ies on the experiment-specific operation requirements have been perfor med and suitable telescience scenarios were analysed. The present pape r will give a survey of the TEMPUS user support tasks emphasizing the advanced science support activities, which are considered significant for future ground programmes.