Beams of relativistic exotic nuclei were produced, separated and investigated with the combination of the fragment separator FRS and the storage ring ESR. The following experiments are presented: 1) Direct mass measurements of relativistic nickel and bismuth projectile fragments were performed using Schottky spectrometry. Applying electron cooling, the relative velocity spread of the circulating secondary nuclear beams of low intensity was reduced to below10−6.The achieved mass resolving power ofm/&Dgr;m=6.5⋅105(FWHM) in recent measurements represents an improvement by a factor of two compared to our previous experiments. The previously unknown masses of more than 100 proton-rich isotopes have been measured in the range of54⩽Z⩽84.The results are compared with mass models and estimated values based on extrapolations of experimental values. 2) Exotic nuclei with half-lives shorter than the time required for electron cooling can be investigated by time-of-flight measurements with the ESR being operated in the isochronous mode. This novel experimental technique has been successfully applied in a first measurement with nickel fragments. A mass resolving power ofm/&Dgr;m=1.5⋅105(FWHM) was achieved in this mode of operation. 3) Nuclear half-lives of stored and cooled bare projectile fragments have been measured to study the influence of the ionic charge state on the beta-decay probability. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.