Lampencaroussel voor onderzoek aan boord van ISS - foto Bart van Overbeeke 2003

The Arges project was a research project in the field of metal-halide lamps, a form of

electric lighting Electric light Electric light is an artificial light source powered by electricity. Electric Light may also refer to: * Light fixture, a decorative enclosure for an electric light source * Electric Light (album), ''Electric Light'' (album), a 201 ...

. The aim was to achieve a higher degree of energy efficiency in comparison to lamps used at the time. The project was commissioned by

Eindhoven University of Technology The Eindhoven University of Technology (), Abbreviation, abbr. TU/e, is a public university, public technical university in the Netherlands, situated in Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its Bachelor of Science, BS ...

and

Philips Electronics Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

. One of the problems which had to be solved was to let the experimental lamps burn reliably and constantly. Scientists believed that this problem was related to gravity, and to ascertain this experiments had to be performed in zero gravity. Therefore, part of the research took place aboard the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

ISS during the

Delta Mission Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

in 2004. Dutch astronaut

André Kuipers André Kuipers (; born 5 October 1958) is a Dutch physician and ESA astronaut. He became the second Dutch citizen, third Dutch-born and fifth Dutch-speaking astronaut upon launch of Soyuz TMA-4 on 19 April 2004. Kuipers returned to Earth ab ...

operated the apparatus transported to the ISS aboard the

Soyuz TMA-4 Soyuz TMA-4 was a Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. It was launched on 19 April 2004 (UTC) from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Gennady Padalka from Russia, Michael Fincke from ...

Literature

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Kroesen: “Wetenschappelijk rendement proef in ruimte honderd procent”
Cursor 2004 {{commonscat, Arges project Research projects Eindhoven University of Technology