MICROGRAVITY PROCESSING OF AEROGEL MATERIAL ON THE STS-95 SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION

摘要

Discovered in the thirties, aerogels rank today among the lightest solids known and display outstanding thermal, optical and acoustic properties in air and vacuum due to their highly porous open-cell structure. Absence of convection driven by density gradients prior to gelation as well as reduction of sedimentation are examined as possible means to affect the nanometer scale pore structure. Inorganic and organic aerogels were processed to gelation in microgravity conditions during the STS-95 Space Shuttle mission in October, 1998. The experiment consisted of servo-actuated modules which mixed 80 different formulations of aerogels evaluating a number of experimental objectives. This paper describes the objectives, approach, and some experimental details of the flight experiment.