B. Glaubitz, K. Kullack, W. Dreier, A. Seidel, W. Soellner, A. Diefenbach, S. Schneider

The Electro-Magnetic Levitator is a multi-user research facility for materials sciences experiments on board the ISS. It provides for container-less melting and solidification of electrically conductive, spherical samples, under ultra-high vacuum and/or ultra-clean gas conditions. EML is a successor of the German TEMPUS facility that was flown on three Spacelab missions in the 1990s, and is based also on the corresponding TEMPUS Parabolic Flight Facility and the EML TEXUS sounding rocket payload. The three facilities together form a unique portfolio of equipment, offering flight opportunities with increasing levels of experiment duration and zero gravity quality to a large international scientific community. This research is also oriented to industrial applications where reliable data for accurate modelling of industrial processes are difficult or impossible to be obtained on ground. The EML for ISS has been developed in a joint undertaking of ESA and DLR Space Administration. It was designed, assembled and tested by German and Italian industry under the lead of Airbus Defence and Space, and launched to the ISS in 2014 with ATV-5. Installation in the Columbus module was performed by the German astronaut Alexander Gerst, and the operations of the facility are now being conducted from the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) in Cologne. This paper provides an overview of the technical development of the EML, including its heritage from TEMPUS facilities, the installation and commissioning on board the ISS, the mission scenario for the coming years including the operations concept by MUSC, and an outlook to some envisaged facility upgrades.

Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2015, Rostock

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V., Bonn, 2015

Conference Paper

englisch

21,0 x 29,7 cm, 9 Seiten

urn:nbn:de:101:1-201510306438

ISS experiment payload, materials science

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30.10.2015