With a big rocket and a little brainpower, Russian scientists said Saturday, as they announced plans to use their Progress space resupply ship to measure the mass of the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

"We do not know the mass of the ISS precisely enough," Vladimir Solovyov, chief of the Russian mission control team supervising the current Progress mission to the ISS said.

"The station is refueled from time to time, something new is brought aboard and something is taken away," he was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

The Progress vessel, which docked with the ISS Saturday to deliver fresh supplies to its two-man crew, will be used to weigh the problem-plagued station, resulting in more efficient and economical use of it, he said.

In physics, thrust is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. Since Russian scientists know the precise weight of Progress and can gauge both the thrust of its engines and the acceleration of the ISS, they can determine its mass, he added.

The resulting measurement of the orbiting station will be accurate within a tolerance of two percent, Solovyov explained.

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