There is a community of space scientists who are working on experiments which study the response of the space environment to stimulation, simulate naturally occurring space phenomena or study space-systems interactions with a view to developing practical systems to benefit future space missions. These experiments are all included under the generic heading of active space experiments. Enthusiasm for this area of research is shown by the solid support in terms of papers submitted to the AGU Space Physics sessions at national meetings.
Use of the space environment as a future vacuum experimental environment should be a natural consequence of the facilities offered by orbiting space stations. The past, present and future work on active space experiments in each of the areas listed above will form a solid foundation on which to build a long-term ongoing coordinated experimental program culminating in the inclusion of active experiments to form one component of the many uses to which large, manned orbiting platforms can be applied. I look forward to the next quadrennial report showing the community moving towards this goal.
Acknowledgments. This report was supported in part by subcontract V08971 from the University of Michigan (NASA flow-through NAS8-39381) and contract DNA 001-90-C-0166 from the Defense Nuclear Agency.