BERLIN The European Space Agency is hatching plans for a branding campaign aimed at making people more aware of the benefits of spending their hard-earned taxes on the International Space Station.

The list of products and technologies that have their roots in space research is long, from memory foam to the in-ear thermometer, but in a world struggling to pay the bill from the financial crisis, the billions of dollars spent on space exploration can be challenging to justify.

The branding plan is an indication that space scientists are concerned about cuts to space agency budgets, and worried that their contribution to economic growth is not fully recognized.

"It frustrates people, because we know we have a valuable asset," Mark Uhran, NASA's assistant associate administrator for the International Space Station, told Reuters at a conference in Berlin of scientists from the 15 nations backing the project.

The European Space Agency estimates the bill for the space station will come to about $130 billion (100 billion euros), including running costs for the next 10 years. The European share of 8 billion euros, it says, equates to 1 euro ($1.30) a day from every European, or less than the price of a cup of coffee.

"If we stop investing, we will harm our economies," said Julie Robinson, space station program scientist at NASA. Robinson points out that the construction of the station was only fully completed last year, but since then there has been a surge in the amount of scientific work being done on board.

Research in orbit Research on the space station cuts across disciplines, from biotechnology to materials science, all in a series of laboratories stuffed with equipment. The space station now covers an area equivalent to a football field, orbiting the earth at more than 17,000 miles an hour.

It is run by a government consortium including the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and 11 of the 17 European Space Agency nations: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What it offers science is a stable environment in microgravity, essentially weightlessness, that can only be replicated in short bursts on Earth through the parabolic flight of aircraft used for spaceflight training and research.

Research in microgravity has led to advances in metallurgy, particularly the production of metallic foams - blocks of metal that contain bubbles - that are strong, light and provide a cushioning effect on impact. Foams are unstable, and therefore harder to study in gravity, said Professor John Banhart from the Technical University of Berlin. The car industry is excited, and lightweight crane lifting arms are already using the technology.

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Agencies plan 'Made in Space' brand campaign