Super Space Materials - 1
 
The President of ISS Drazen Premate was involved in design and development of the largest Space Furnace ever built in the world to manufacture high quality expensive electronic crystals in Zero-Gravity of Space in 1980s under the his private company called International Space Corporation (ISC).
It was called Normal Freezing Space Furnace (NFSF) and it used the so called directional solidification for cooling of the melted multi-component crystal mixture material into a crystal structure. The NFSF structure was over 8 ft long and it was to be attached onto MPESS platform inside the Space Shuttle cargo bay. It was capable of manufacturing commercial grade multi-component crystal materials of 2-3 inches in diameter in zero gravity of space and use only about 1/12th of normal power such crystal growing furnaces use on the ground.
It was also capable of processing in zero gravity various composite materials that could never be made on the ground due to the presence of gravity and different density of such multi-component materials when in a melted state. There are dozens of such materials that we do not know properties of yet since there were never made in zero gravity of space yet and we call them the Super Space Materials. They can be of crystalline, metallic, composite nature.
Composite materials made on the ground have many applications already because they are tough and lightweight and can be formed into many complex shapes. Even NASA has looked at use of composite materials for design of future spacecrafts like Orion crew module that was being developed for the return to the Moon. NASA wanted to take a composite material and build a complex, compact space structure that is reliable, strong, cost-effective and safe for human space travel.
Such space made super materials have to be brought back to Earth to be studied and analyzed and eventually tested for various applications thus a return trip is needed. It is not like communication satellites which are one way trip payloads. Zero-G processing of such materials produces material that cannot be made on the ground.
Amount of zero-g time on the ground in a Zero-G plane during parabolic free fall is too short – maximum about 30 seconds and these composite materials need much longer times and precise cooling to take place before they become solid. This specially applies to tri or greater number of component materials with different densities and solidification points.
Zero gravity produces better materials because there is no gravity in the orbit round Earth (perpetual free fall) thus there is no sedimentation, no convection, no separation of materials before they solidify due to density difference. The so call diffusion takes over in zero-g while the mixture is still in liquid state and before it solidifies giving a much more uniform distribution of basic component materials based on ionic attraction. Super Space Materials could have very revolutionary applications that we do not know about yet since such materials have not been made yet!!
Until there is again in existence a usable fully orbital space plane or space shuttle like vehicle that can go in the orbit and come back to earth with processed crystal materials, ISS will not be able to develop or use large scale space growing furnaces for production or super space such as NFSF was. Small, more adaptable to various launch configuration and self contained furnace systems for Super Space Materials – 1 project that can stay in orbit for certain amount of time will be built and launched on an expendable rocket such as Taurus or Pegasus or similar before such furnace system is then parachuted back to Earth again with zero-g processed super space materials.
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