The European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with Chinese companies, will conduct an experiment involving sending crude oil into space.

The experiment, named "Soret Coefficient in Crude Oil," is a joint project of China's National Science Space Center, ESA, China PetroChina and France's Total Oil Company.

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According to the ESA, the space agency is shipping out six small pressurized cylinders of crude oil into the space. The experiment will give oil companies an insight on how oil reservoirs operate deep underground.

Each container was pressurized at 400 atmospheres that holds one milliliter of crude oil, in which, as cited by Gizmag, the highest atmospheric level ever sent into space.

Antonio Vergara, overseeing the project for ESA, said that "placed into a 'hypercritical' state by the high pressure, the crude oil is contained inside small titanium cylinders with a stainless steel internal valve mechanism."

Vergara continued to say that "one end of the cylinder is warmed while the other end is cooled. When the time comes for the mission to return, a divider will come across to prevent the migrated liquid being mixed again during reentry."

These containers were tested at ESA's Technical Centre in Noordwijk, Netherlands.  Launch vibration and shock, orbit flight temperature shifts and re-entry were extensively tested to ensure that the project will go through smoothly.

The package will aboard China's SJ-10 Shi Jian spacecraft and will orbit in space for two weeks. Once the spacecraft will descend, oil team from Si Chuan province will collect all specimens for detailed analysis.

TagsOil Testing, Space Oil Testing, Space news, China Oil Testing, China Space oil Testing, ESA Space Testing