Electrostatic Levitation Method for Containerless Material Processing in Microgravity

Abstract

This paper describes the ground-based vacuum electrostatic levitation furnace (ELF) developed as a breadboard model for the flight facility for the International Space Station (ISS). It first discusses the importance of containerless processing for material science, then describes the sample position and rotation control methods, and one of the most significant applications to the ELF, thermophysical property measurements.