抄録
An electrostatic levitation furnace for microgravity experiments has been developed and transferred to the International Space Station (ISS). This electrostatic levitation method utilizes Coulomb force between a charged sample and surrounding electrodes for sample position control. On the ground experiment, amount of charge accumulated on the sample surface has to be 10-9 to 10-10 C to levitate it against gravity. In microgravity, it was found that a sample can be stably handled even though the amount of surface charge is 10-13 C. When the control parameters are properly chosen, the position stability of the sample during heating can be maintained better than ±100 µm. This stability is good enough to precisely measure the sample temperature by a pyrometer as well as to measure the sample volume by an image analysis.
