The Space Foundry Laboratory on the ISS: A Commercial and Upgraded Electromagnetic Levitation Furnace for Metal Research in Space

摘要

CisLunar Industries is building a commercial microgravity furnace called the Space Foundry Laboratory (SFL) that will be hosted on the on the International Space Station (ISS). The SFL will be able to melt metal, produce metal parts, create novel alloys, and offer these capabilities to customers on a commercial basis for metallurgical research and production. Most useful metals are produced from a partially or fully melted sample. The transformation of the sample from liquid state into a solid state is characterized by heat and mass transport, which influences the metal formation and its resultant properties. The conditions of heat and mass transport in the melt play a very important role in the solidification macro- and microstructures. For Earth-based metal production, the transport of heat and mass is usually affected by gravity driven convection. In addition, the crystal growth in the bulk liquid is also affected by sedimentation or floatation and hydrostatic pressure. A microgravity environment significantly reduces convection, removes sedimentation and suppresses hydrostatic pressure. By reducing these gravity-related sources of heat and mass transport, microgravity leads to a homogeneous microstructure and isotropic mechanical properties of the metal. The cost of access to space currently being very high, commercial benefits from space-based microgravity research involve relatively small experiments on the ISS, the results from which lead to improvement in terrestrial processes. However, these experiments do not currently aim to develop large-scale industrial manufacturing capabilities in the space environment. CisLunar Industries is developing a microgravity furnace with an in-space metal processing and refining capability to produce raw materials for in-orbit utilization, so that sustainable and commercially viable orbital manufacturing can be achieved. The SFL will include an electromagnetic levitation type furnace designed to use less than 1,000 Watts of