NASA ESA Mission: MISSE-8

This may look like a NASA version of the game Connect Four, but in fact it's a scientific experiment.

Photographed during a spacewalk as part of the current Atlantis shuttle mission, the Materials on International Space Station Experiment 8 (MISSE-8) consists of a series of circular test beds containing solar cells, computing devices and new and experimental materials.

Some of these modules, NASA hopes, may have applications on future spacecraft.

The panel is attached to the outside of the space station, exposing the objects to the rigours of space, which include radiation, micrometeorites and extreme temperatures.

MISSE-8 is expected to return to Earth in early 2013.

NASA: MISSE: science in microgravity

This suitcase-sized experiment may look like the ultimate cosmetics kit, but it is used to test the effect of radiation on a range of materials, from ceramics to spores. The first Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) box was attached to the station in 2001.

Astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery removed the sixth set of boxes from the station on 1 September this year.

A recent NASA report on space station science called MISSE "perhaps the most prolific suite of experiments to date" aboard the outpost.

(Image: NASA-MSFC)