Xavitechs pump will make space bloom

In November another space shuttle with Swedish interests on board will be taking off from the Kennedy Space Center. On board the shuttle, which has ISS (International Space Station) as its destination, is a small intelligent pump from the pump manufacturer Xavitech in Härnösand. The pump is a critical component in a research experiment to cultivate plants in space.

- We were contacted by one of NASA's subcontractors over a year ago, and we had to send a number of trial pumps. The fact that they subsequently chose our pump for the project is really fantastic, and an acknowledgment that our products maintain high quality, says Xavitech's CEO Johan Stenberg.

The pump's job is to pump condensed water around in a specially designed greenhouse so that water and nutrients are conveyed to the plants' roots. The greenhouse will be transferred over to ISS in conjunction with docking and it will remain there for further research. - The equipment has been undergoing preparation for ten years and the function that Xavitech's pump will take care of is critical for the plants' survival, says Todd Mortenson, technical engineer at Bionetics Corporation, which has been commissioned by NASA to implement the project.

The experiment will be closely supervised by cameras and the crew on ISS. The effect of gravity, light and temperature conditions in the greenhouse will be constantly monitored. - We chose Xavitech's “P200” pump primarily for its reliability and because it runs so quietly. Furthermore it was an advantage that it was simple to program and optimize it for the requirements of the project, Todd Mortenson told Johan Stenberg and his colleague Jonathan Grip when they visited the Kennedy Space Center in September.

Xavitech AB has five years' experience of pump manufacturing and mainly develops pumps for volume production within the medical technology field. - We are certainly used to a varied range of applications for our pumps, but we would never have believed that they would get to make the same trip as Christer Fuglesang, says Johan Stenberg.

For more information contact Johan Stenberg, CEO, Xavitech AB, tel. +46 (0)70-482 77 00.