The Road to the Marangoni Experiment in Space—Battles against Bubbles—

Abstract

The first series of Marangoni Experiment in Space (MEIS) was successfully conducted from 22nd August, 2008 to 17th October. Until that time, researchers suffered serious difficulties on bubbles inside a liquid volume in space experiments. Finally, however, the MEIS team has been able to win a beautiful liquid bridge without bubbles on 31st August, although the team faced many bubbles in the bridge at the beginning. To remove them, the team made the best use of various techniques based on experiences of the prior experiments. This is the record of the experiences on Battles against Bubbles.