Polymer crystal growth facility concept for Space Station laboratory module
Interest in materials processing in space began to evolve in the late 1950's through low gravity simulation and some experiments on Apollo flights. Encouraged by the early results and considerations of the likely behavior of liquids and solidification process in low-gravity gave the recognition that this environment might be useful for a variety of unique processes. This generated a number of experimental ideas and gave rise to the design and development of facilities that will perform the experiments in space vehicles. These include the evolution of apparatus leading to the development of facilities for processing of materials on Skylab and now for the Space Transportation System (STS). The U.S. module on Space Station (SS) is going to expand this unique laboratory environment with practically no constraint on materials processing activity. This will need technology advancement for the hardware that will be required in this era. This presentation discusses the current concept for the experimental facility which will be housed in the U.S. Laboratory module on the Space Station and will allow the growth of single crystals of polymeric and organic materials using the state-of-the-art growth techniques.