Abstract
During the eighties, microgravity research focussed predominantly on the investigation of fundamental phenomena, often with limited industrial support. Although this approach led to some rather impressive breakthroughs in terms of new theoretical insights and microgravity experimentation, the need for increased co-ordination and interest from industry became increasingly apparent. In this decade, a user-driven research strategy has been instigated by ESA to promote microgravity research. The objective is to coordinate ESA, national activities and industry into an overall European strategy, which will allow valuable application-oriented microgravity research to be performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS). On this basis, it is expected that scientific progress will evolve even more rapidly due to the easier planning, regular access and longer experiment-durations associated with the ISS.
This paper highlights the wealth of microgravity research being co-ordinated by ESA in the field of physical sciences. A number of key areas of research under microgravity conditions are currently being explored such as alloy solidification, crystal growth,measurement of thermophysical properties, combustion mechanisms, fluid flow, cold atom physics and complex plasmas, to name but a few. The following sections will provide background information relating to the various ESA research programmes, as well as emphasising their microgravity relevance.
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Interested readers are invited to consult: “A World Without Gravity – Research in Space for Health and Industrial Processes” by G. Seibert et al., ESA SP-1251, June 2001.
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Minster, O., Kufner, E., Vago, J. et al. Esa Microgravity Research Activities In The Field Of Physical Sciences And Applications. Earth, Moon, and Planets 87, 127–147 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013182706186
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013182706186