State of art of space data exploitation:

• Data: The interpretation of scientific data requires additional information (like facility status data, local environment data as microgravity levels, etc.) and further information (as description of experimental set-up and procedure), often distributed among different units of space agencies.
• Archiving: the whole set of all data and information is generally collected by the investigator only, who is the sole responsible for data analysis and scientific evaluation.
• Knowledge dissemination: scientific results are published by the investigator in one or more papers on scientific journals, thus oriented toward a selected public specialized in the same scientific discipline. Summaries of ESA experiments are published on ESA journals and on the Erasmus Experiment Archive.

The consequence of the present organisation for data archiving and knowledge dissemination is a strong limitation of:

• Re-utilisation of data for further deepening of scientific analysis;
• Cross-fertilisation between different scientific areas;
• Generation of spin-off for terrestrial and/or space applications;
• Information utilisation from the perspective of non-scientific stake-holders (as decision-makers and educational bodies).

These limitations can be overcome by an integrated system for the dissemination of experimental data:

• ULISSE follows a service-oriented approach.
• Services to Users are compose of resources made available through a distribuited infrastructure (Middleware).
• ULISSE makes available different types of resources, like data/ information sources, S/W tools, knowledge – based applications, ect.
• Middleware is based on three-tiers architecture: Acquisition, Integration, Services.
• Front-End Demonstrator will provide User interfaces for collecting service requests and providing the desired output