Russian scientists have developed a system that makes possible a long-term experiment at the International Space Station (ISS) testing liquids in zero gravity in the near future, a representative of the Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences said Friday.

"The experiment will have to do with the research of liquids in zero gravity. It is necessary because not a single manned flight to space can do without liquids. One needs to eat, drink and so on. That is why it is necessary to research the way liquids behave in conditions of weightlessness.

"And it turns out, they behave very differently there, not the way they do on Earth," said Oleg Kabov, deputy head of the heat exchange augmentation lab at the Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics.

The joint experiment of Russian and European Space Agencies is to explore the evaporation and condensation of liquids. The test, called CIMEX, is to use the system developed at the Russian institute.

The ISS is a base for conducting broad research in space. Russia has so far focused much of its efforts on biomedical research, and is now stepping up its physics research.

Russia is currently the only ISS participant that provides crew changes for the station and carries most deliveries to it.