ABSTRACT
Materials science investigates basically the relationship between the structure of materials and their various properties. It includes elements of applied physics and chemistry, as well as chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering. Fresh insight into the stable and metastable undercooled liquid state and metallic alloy solidification can be gained with the potential of engineering novel microstructures. To perform these experiments, it is important to have access to extended periods of reduced gravity. For materials science experiments at high temperatures, this time is barely sufficient for melting, heating into the stable liquid and cooling to solidification of most metallic alloys of interest in a temperature range between 10,000–2,000°C. The short microgravity time on parabolic flights and TEXUS sounding rocket experiments necessitates forced convective cooling to solidify the specimen before the end of the microgravity time. As a consequence, long-duration microgravity measurements are needed for accurate calorimetric and thermal transport property measurements over a large temperature range.
