HUN-REN has confirmed that space experiments, such as the observation of the upper atmosphere electrical activities taking place in the Earth's night hemisphere, carried out on the International Space Station by Hungarian research astronaut Tibor Kapu, who returned to Earth on Tuesday, have proved to be spectacularly successful.

Among the experiments, Kapu recorded videos of lightning activity and related electrical flashes of light, so-called FEF phenomena, that appear above thunderstorm clouds for the HUN-REN Geophysics and Space Research Institute.

The images are expected to be helpful in verifying detection efficiency in ground-based lightning detection networks and applying knowledge of electrical activity of thunderstorms in climate research, the statement noted.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the HUN-REN Alfred Renyi Mathematical Research Institute, Kapu conducted measurements related to a new tracking method which can be used in medicine, robotics, and even video games, and the mission provided an opportunity for longer measurements of calibration data from two complete orbits. Preliminary results can be expected in a few weeks once NASA has released the data. The algorithms derived from the experiment may, in addition, aid space navigation and the joint coordination of spacecraft during docking, the statement added.

Kapu also furthered a discovery in 2024 by HUN-REN-BME Morphodynamics Research Group applied mathematicians regarding spatial structures called soft cells which could only be performed in a weightless environment. He created bodies of water to create soft cells, forming a connected structure from several soft cells and thereby showing that spatial structures cling to each other in an unusual and highly stable way, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, crystal chemists from the HUN-REN Natural Science Research Centre, in cooperation with the HUNOR Program and the Japanese space industry company JAMSS, spent a month growing single crystals from a new organic compound. Under weightless conditions, more crystal structures can be grown than in any laboratory on Earth. This may open new avenues in chemical research and industrial applications, being the first hydrogen-bonded framework structure ever to be crystallised in a weightless environment.