The European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) was built for plant research, but could also hold experiments on small animals (insects and small invertebrates). It was funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), and was developed by an industrial team led by the German company EADS-ST Friedrichshafen. Specialists at NASA’s Ames Research Center optimized it for certain experiments by developing experiment-unique hardware. 

It was installed on the ISS in the US Destiny module (2006-08), and the European Columbus module (2008). The EMCS hosted a wide variety of plant experiments that helped scientists understand imaging systems, plant movement, plant membrane proteomes, plant growth and development, cell-wall genetics, and plant tropisms in space. The centrifuges (sometimes called rotors) allow researchers to apply different levels of gravity (0.001 g to 2.0 g) to the experiment containers (ECs). Centrifuges allow researchers to apply “gravity” at the same level as you would find on the Earth, the Moon, or Mars, allowing astronauts to test how well plants might grow in lunar or Martian gravity.