World Space Week 2025: three HaDEA projects supporting life in space

World Space Week, held annually from 4 to 10 October, is an international celebration of space science and technology.

This year, the chosen theme is “Living in Space.” This theme explores humanity’s journey toward making space a habitat, emphasising the innovative technologies, challenges, and collaborative efforts that make this vision a reality.

Discover three HaDEA-managed projects that are contributing to this goal:

• ALCYONE aims to develop an innovative analytical platform to study the effects of space environment radiation on living cells. High radiation exposure constitutes a great risk for humans in space, and research on this topic has proven to be challenging. In conjunction with new technologies, the platform will allow for research and analysis in situ of space environment effects on model biological systems and further contribute to researching novel shielding solutions.
• LUWEX successfully designed and tested a novel extractor system which can successfully process simulated lunar regolith and extract water from within. Access to water is crucial, and being able to generate water directly in space would be a breakthrough development for human-led missions. Watch the LUWEX project summary video.
• DUSTER developed instrumentation and technologies to study the electrical charging and transport of dust particles, which pose a serious threat for both human and robotic exploration missions. Dust exposure and inhalation can have a range of toxic effects on human lunar explorers, especially in case of longer exposure times. The project managed to produce an instrument for in situ analysis of dust-like particles and their transport, enabling future missions to be safer for astronauts and equipment alike. 

Background

Under Horizon Europe Cluster 4: Space, HaDEA is funding projects that prepare future evolutions of the EU Space Programme components (focus on Copernicus and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST)),foster the EU space sector’s competitiveness at large, reinforce its independent capacity to access space and secure its autonomy of supply for critical technologies and equipment.