CNES, the French space agency, covers five major areas of activity: Ariane launcher, Science, Earth observation, Telecommunication and Defense. In the Science area, in order to better understand the origin of the Universe, further our knowledge and understanding of its constituent parts, the CNES science program develops and exploits space instruments to study astrophysics, fundamental physics, solar system, exobiology and supports science in and for microgravity. The Physical science program covers hydrodynamics, evaporation, transfer, supercritical fluids, particles and suspensions, foam, material solidification, gas and solid combustion… The objective is to help laboratories simplify the study of various physical phenomena through access to microgravity. These research themes are mainly studied in relationship with European Space Agency. About 150 French scientists are involved in more than 40 ESA Topical Teams. In France, with the CNES support, forty laboratories are assembled in an association of researchers using microgravity. An annual meeting is organized to exchange about main updates and discuss possible improvement and cooperation. CNES Science program funds the necessary complement to develop or adapt the scientific instruments to space experimentation. This funding contributes also to the data use, simulation and numerical modeling. Numerical simulation, tests in the zero-G airplane and then long term experiments in ISS is the regular way to take progressively advantage of the space facilities. This is made essentially through the ESA organization frame but also in direct cooperation with other space agency, within or outside Europe. Indeed, CNES has direct access to ISS independently of the ESA program through cooperation with NASA that guaranties use of the ISS beyond 2020. Solid skills of the French community in instrumentation, modelling and simulation are widely recognized and we hope that future cooperation, supported by CNES through access to the zero-G test environment, can be developed in the future.

抄録全体を表示

Human Space Project of China is going to the stage of space station construction. This stage involves a space laboratory which will be launched in near future, and the space station which will be constructed since 2018 and completed around 2022 or so, then operated on orbit for more than 10 years. This paper reviews the physical science items on board of china’s space laboratory and cargo ship which will be docked with space laboratory. It is related with fundamental physics such as cold atom clock and quantum key distribution from space to the grand, microgravity fluid physics experiment, material science experiment in microgravity condition, astronomy, and earth observation for geophysical research. This paper also gives a brief introduction of the research fields and main research direction of physical science plan, as well as main research facility and experiment platform on board of China’s space station.

抄録全体を表示

The roadmap of microgravity-applied sciences is overviewed by reviewing the outputs of ISS experiments, the emerging subjects of onground sciences, the progress of space tourism, etc. We are convincing that the Science Union for Human Planetary Habitation in Space (SUHPHS) is necessary to progress the technologies of solving the social problems, such as population explosion, resource depletion and global warming. Our collaborative actions of integrating the physical and life sciences in space are very promising to push forward the ISS utilization beyond 2020.

抄録全体を表示

Calibration and check-out runs during FeCrNi steel alloy melting cycles on the International Space Station are compared to previous test results from experimental platforms both in microgravity and on ground. Four key thermophysical properties are investigated: density, thermal expansion, surface tension and viscosity. Analysis shows that the three facilities yield results with comparable accuracy but the space results indicate that planned changes to on-orbit processing protocol are required to maximize the potential for significantly improved precision.

抄録全体を表示

To analyze the fundamental mechanisms active in the formation of three-dimensional (3D) arrays of cells and dendrites under diffusive growth conditions, in situ monitoring of series of experiments on transparent model alloy was carried out in the DECLIC Directional Solidification Insert on-board the International Space Station, offering a very unique opportunity to in situ characterize the whole development of the microstructure in extended 3D patterns. Some of the most striking results are here presented. Microgravity environment provided the conditions to get benchmark data in diffusive transport conditions; the comparison with ground experiments will be performed to highlight the influence of convection in terms of primary spacing distributions. Oscillatory breathing modes observed for the very first time in bulk samples will also be described with the support of 3D-phase-field simulations.

抄録全体を表示

Flame spread in fuel spray near the flame base and subsequent excitation of group combustion of the whole spray are necessary for stable combustion of continuous burning of liquid fuel such as in aero engines or gas turbines. In order to elucidate the flame spread mechanism, flame spread experiments of a fuel-droplet array in microgravity have been undertaken. Based on the past short-duration microgravity experiments and a percolation model to describe group combustion excitation of randomly distributed droplet clouds, the droplet cloud combustion experiment named “Group Combustion” is planned as the first combustion experiment in the Japanese Experiment Module “KIBO” on the International Space Station. The objective of this experiment is to verify the flame spread hypotheses regarding the effects of droplet interaction, droplet motion, and radiative heat loss from the flame. The Group Combustion Experiment Module (GCEM) has been developed as experiment-dedicated apparatus. This paper will provide an overview of the experiment.

抄録全体を表示

The behavior of fine particle (dust) clouds in plasmas is analyzed by theory, simulations, and experiments. The investigation is motivated by basic interest in strongly coupled Coulomb-like systems and by on-going experiments by PK-4 on-board the International Space Station (ISS). This apparatus succeeding PK-3 Plus has a different simple geometry and has a possibility to elucidate another fundamental aspects of fine particle systems in plasmas. We give an overview of the results of theoretical and simulation works and our experiments with the apparatus PK-4J which has a structure similar to PK-4.

抄録全体を表示

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has been committed to the educational activities using the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM/KIBO) on the International Space Station (ISS) for young generations, including Try-Zero G and Space Seeds programs for Japanese and Asian students. JAXA has also held the Students' Parabolic Flight Experiment programs for years, with successful accomplishment of the original objectives. In addition, JAXA has implemented the pilot projects and the studies on literal and social sciences using JEM, which we found have educational aspects. We are expecting to extend these results to the public for raising awareness and inspiring the next generations.

抄録全体を表示

We participated in the parabolic flight campaign to do an experiment under microgravity environment. We performed an experiment to visualize resonance profile in air column during Asian Student Team Parabolic Flight 2013. In this article we report activities related to the project including exhibitions, talks, educational outreach, awards and academic conferences. We devised a simple survey to know what is expected by the public on the influence of gravity on resonance profile, after giving brief explanations about the physical phenomenon in the air column. It is interesting to see that the majority of respondents associated microgravity with the concept of random flotation.

抄録全体を表示

In the present-day steel processing, interfacial phenomena between molten steel and oxides, which are called slag or mold flux, play important roles in materials design. Therefore, interfacial tension must be known for process controlling. From this requirement, we proposed the interfacial tension measurement technique between molten steel and oxides using the modified oscillating drop method with levitation techniques. The interfacial tension data using traditional technique based on the sessile drop method have been obtained only at melting temperature of iron due to dissolution of containers and the substrate into molten steel and oxides in higher temperature regions. The technique of our proposal to technique to obtain temperature dependence of interfacial tension between molten iron and oxides uses a core-shell form droplet including interface between two liquids using the electrostatic levitation, which can achieve the containerless conditions. The measurements are performed in International Space Station using the electrostatic levitation furnace (ELF) in KIBO.

抄録全体を表示

Total of four SiGe crystal growth experiments aboard the ISS were successfully performed for evaluating a two-dimensional growth model of the traveling liquidus zone (TLZ) method and for obtaining insights into large homogeneous SiGe crystal growth conditions. The TLZ growth requires diffusion limited mass transport in a melt and experiments in microgravity are essential. Although a little deviation from the expected compositional uniformity due to emissivity change of the cartridge surface is observed, homogeneous SiGe crystals are grown. Over all axial growth rate is consistent with the one-dimensional TLZ growth model prediction. However, radial growth rates are different from the two-dimensional growth model prediction. The difference is closely related to the flat interface shape in space grown crystals compared with the terrestrial ones and the radial compositional uniformity is much better than those of terrestrially grown crystals. Suppression of convection in a melt is favorable for obtaining flat freezing interface and is beneficial to large homogeneous SiGe crystal growth. It is expected that the obtained results are utilized and large homogeneous crystal growth is realized on the ground and electronic devices using SiGe substrates are developed.

抄録全体を表示

Oxygen activity (𝑎o2 ) of high purity nitrogen gas was controlled and monitored by a zirconia oxygen pump and sensors operated at 600 °C. It was confirmed that the oxygen pump and sensors can control the 𝑎o2 at 600 °C precisely. Solid metal samples of copper, nickel and iron were actually oxidized under the processed gas when the indicated value of the 𝑎o2 is higher than the equilibrium oxygen activity for formation of the metal oxides. When the indicated value of 𝑎o2 is lower than the equilibrium oxygen activity for formation of the oxides, the samples were reduced. The processed gas showed a temperature reliance induced from the gas phase equilibrium between the H2 and H2O gases, which were contained in the source gas as an impurity.

抄録全体を表示

The hexagonal structure with a space group of P63cm has been known to be stable in the RMnO3 system (R: rare earth element) of the rare earth elements having smaller ionic radius. The hexagonal RMnO3 (h-RMnO3) has attracted great interest towards their wide applications in the field of electronic industry, because h-RMnO3 shows multiferroic properties such as ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity in the same phase. Nevertheless, the materials for practical applications remain undeveloped, because h-RMnO3 shows anti-ferromagnetism as well as low magnetic transformation temperature below 100 K. To solve this problem, we considered that a composite of a ferromagnetic phase and a ferroelectric phase is more realistic than a single-phase material. On the basis of this idea, we attempted to synthesize the multiferroic composite consisting of ferroelectric h-RFeO3 and ferromagnetic Fe3O4 by utilizing the containerless technique. The experimental result showed that it is possible to exhibit a fine composite structure when h-LuFeO3 and Fe3O4 are equimolar amounts. However, the orthorhombic phase (o-RFeO3) as well as h-RFeO3 was observed in the samples in which the mole-fraction of Fe3O4 was increased. The reason for forming the o-RFeO3 phase is attributed to the decrease of the driving force for forming a metastable phase due to the fact that the solute atom or molecule is redistributed at the solid-liquid interface of the growing crystal.

抄録全体を表示

In this study, we investigate the microstructure of InSb particles to which several elements are added (Ag, Sn, Al, and Fe). The microstructure of these particles changes depending on the kind of element incorporated. InSb becomes the primary phase and exhibits a polycrystalline structure by adding Ag or Sn, whereas it becomes a secondary phase by adding Al or Fe. When Al is added, AlSb becomes the primary phase and the InSb phase is solidified as fine crystal grains. When Fe is added, FeSb becomes the primary phase and InSb phase is solidified as large crystal grains. We consider that the AlSb phase becomes a nucleation site; however, the FeSb phase does not become a nucleation site of the secondary phase of the InSb compound. In addition, we suggest that addition of Fe is effective for monocrystallization of InSb particles.

抄録全体を表示

Using a drop tube process，single crystal formation of Si particles has been reported by K. Kuribayashi et al. However, the solidification morphology and microstructure of Si with Fe, Nd, and Gd additions has yet to be explained. In this study, we have prepared Si particles with Fe， Nd，and Gd additions using a short-drop tube apparatus with a freefall length of 2.5 m. In addition, we have investigated the effect of the additional elements upon the solidification morphology and microstructure of Si. The binary Si particles with Fe additions formed-FeSi2. The binary Si particles with Nd or Gd additions formed eutectic structures comprising Si and NdSi1.8 or Si and GdSi2 silicide compound. The ternary Si particles with added Fe and Nd or Gd formed eutectic structures comprising -FeSi2 and NdSi1.8 or -FeSi2 and GdSi2 silicide compounds.

抄録全体を表示

The formation and the oscillation behavior of the core-shell droplet are important for the investigation of the interfacial tension between two different liquids by the oscillating drop technique. On the basis of the oscillating drop technique, we are trying the measurements of the interfacial tension between molten steel and oxide (smelting slag and/or welding flux) in the International Space Station (ISS). For the ISS experiments, we must confirm the formation of core-shell shape droplet by molten steels and oxides under microgravity conditions. We observed the formation of core-shell droplet of Ag-B2O3 and Fe-welding fluxes of the ilmenite type in the short-time microgravity experiments by the parabolic flight. On the other hand, for Fe-smelting slag we cannot observe the formation of the core-shell droplet. For the case of Fe-ilmenite flux, we can observe two independent peaks from FFT analysis. In the report, we describe the details of parabolic flight experiments and also discuss the conditions of interfacial tension measurements using core-shell droplet under microgravity condition.

抄録全体を表示