Furnace facilities for materials processing on the International Space Station (ISS) may include the Space Experiment Facility (SEF) which consists of two transparent furnace modules. When SEF is put into operation on ISS, various commercial interests can be satisfied sequentially by scheduled employment of SEF. The CMDS will be the facility manager through whom arrangements can be made for SEF access. Utilizing the transparency of the SEF furnace, real-time observation and control of the crystal growth can be accomplished as demonstrated on the Space Transportation System (STS)-77 mission. The ISS should provide long growth periods which are needed to grow large single crystals in microgravity. One area of particular commercial interest is the acousto-optic filters (AOTF) based on mercurous halide research which would continue on the ISS, research begun on the STS-77 mission. The stability of the thermocouple control has a standard deviation of less than 0.1 °C at temperatures of 573/593 °K. The SEF has been successfully used to grow single crystals of mercurous chloride in closed ampoules by physical vapor transport aboard the STS-77 mission. Utilizing the video down-link, the crew-principal investigator interaction was crucial in adjusting the crystal growth parameters during the STS-77 flight.
A transparent furnace as a commercial research facility
Space technology and applications international forum - 1998 ; 1998 ; Albuquerque,New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 420 , 1 ; 551-555
1998-01-15
5 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
A Transparent Furnace as a Commercial Research Facility
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