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The study led by C. Peromingo, P. Salgado Sánchez, D. Gligor, A. Bello, and J. Rodríguez, published in Physics of Fluids (2023), addresses innovative methods to reduce sloshing in microgravity environments. Simulations were conducted to identify the optimal shape, number, and arrangement of baffles in a rectangular tank. Additionally, temperature modulation was introduced to counteract the original sloshing motion.

Findings: The findings demonstrated that the ideal combination of baffles and temperature modulation reduced sloshing decay time by over 80%. This strategy showed significant potential to enhance liquid stability in microgravity environments.

Applications and Significance: The developed methods have potential applications across various domains, from propulsion systems and water storage in space missions to terrestrial uses, including liquid transport in trucks, manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, and offshore oil extraction plants.

Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of innovative techniques in controlling sloshing in microgravity, underscoring their relevance not only in space missions but also in numerous terrestrial systems.

Cross-shaped baffles

You can also read here the AIP article.

La entrada Slowing sloshing in space: Exploring innovative techniques aparece primero en E-USOC.

Images from the parabolic flights. Source: NoveSpace

Convection, a well-known phenomenon on Earth and used in several applications, disappears in weightless environments. In this sense, the solid-liquid interface of a system evolves in a larger timescale and thus, it complicates heat evacuation. In the presence of a free surface, however, a surface tension gradient exists due to the thermal difference and helps heat transfer in this region. Understand and exploit this effect, known as Marangoni effect, is crucial in some particular cases. TePim team pretends to analyze its potential application for phase change materials (PCM) which are widely used in space thermal control systems.

The absence of the large scale force of gravity permits the existence of new fluid configurations, like bubbles or drops, and complicates their management, which is a crucial tasks in life support systems or fuel tanks, among others. Some high consumption power systems have already been used to handle this problem with obvious disadvantages. In the last few decades, however, vibrations have been shown to be an alternative as a source of artificial gravity. CFVib team aims to understand the complex behavior of fluids in microgravity and the potential use of such vibrations to control fluids deliberately in different containers by means of a piezoelectric-based forcing mechanism.

“Microgravity and having our experiment in ZERO g were two of the most wonderful experiences of our life. We are looking forward to see the science results”, said Jose Javier Fernandez, team leader of CFVib. Despite further develop is needed, some intriguing results have been obtained from the 65th ESA Parabolic Flight campaign where the first CFVib and TePim experiment set-ups have flown.

We want to thank ESA, the ESA Education Office and ELGRA for the opportunity to participate in this amazing experience and their valuable scientific support. Thanks also to Novespace for their technical advice and contribution during all the project, and Trenz Electronic, their Analog Discovery device has been crucial in the success of the experiment. Thanks to Krytox Performance Lubricants, a business of The Chemours Company for supply of PFPE test fluid. Finally, all our thanks to the E-USOC, ETSIAE and UPM that have been supporting from the beginning.

La entrada Great experience of both research teams in the 65th ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign aparece primero en E-USOC.

“Our work has always been recognized by European Space Agency and scientific teams with whom we have worked, but we did not expect this great institutional recognition, because many people work around the International Space Station and it is very difficult be nominated and awarded “. With these words, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Professor and E-USOC director, Ana Laverón, has expressed their surprise for receiving one of the awards.

On behalf of E-USOC team, two of its members have attended the third edition of the ESA ISS Awards, held on 26 March in ESTEC’s Erasmus Centre (Netherlands).They have come as nominees in Awards (2013) for the Increment 31/32.

The reasons for the nomination have been that Spanish USOC has provided an outstanding operational support throughout the execution of the GEOFLOW-2 experiment. For several months, the team led by Dr. Ana Laveron has provided continuous support to the GEOFLOW science team, always with a positive attitude. The E-USOC has also gained significant experience in the operational support of several hardware malfunctions / anomalies, ensuring valuable operational data gathering to support the work of the engineering community.

The award was introduced by astronaut André Kuipers, who was at the ISS for the increment 31/32, a symbol of the union between the different people that make space research. The trophy itself is a piece of ESA’s history – it is a bronze casting of astronaut Hans Schlegel’s Extra Vehicular Activity glove, used for the installation of the Columbus module on the Space Station in 2008. It symbolizes the handshake of trust between the crew and those that made the missions a success.

Indeed, among those on earth, is the Operations Center and Spanish User Support, located on Technical University of Madrid Campus of International Excellence Montegancedo. Ana Laverón, in charge of E-USOC, argues:

“This award has been the best recognition of the efforts that we have been devoted to obtain the best possible science from the experiments delegated to us by the European Space Agency.”

E-USOC has recently finished the operations on Geoflow-2B experiment, which obtained experimental and essential results to validate numerical models on the flow and composition of the Earth’s core and it is preparing the next, DCMIX-2, an experiment for study ternary diffusion in fluids. They will operate it during two or three months after its arrival at the ISS.

Expertise, professionalism and dedication were recognized in the third ISS Award ceremony. The Director of Human Spaceflight and Operations, Thomas Reiter, called the event “a unique opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the many excellent colleagues who with their expertise and through their personal dedication have contributed to successful missions.” Cooperation between all people involved in each mission is the key to its proper functioning and therefore they defined themselves as “a big family”, she said.

Source: ESA

La entrada E-USOC awarded by the European Space Agency aparece primero en E-USOC.

Source: NASA

“Second successful scientific execution on orbit with educational added value”

The first part of the EPO Foam Stability experiment has been successfully performed inside Columbus by André Kuipers on January 2012. This experiment first part pursued two main objectives: one scientific and one educational. After the data evaluation of the former FOAM-S experiment, scientists proposed new fluid mixtures samples testing. In addition the ESA Education Office has created an educational programme that will transmit science on orbit activities to classrooms across Europe, being EPO Foam Stability one of the demonstration experiments selected.

The scientific experiment philosophy has not changed with respect to the first execution in 2009. The experiment aims to study the so called “wet” foams, which cannot be stabilized on earth because of drainage (process absent in micro-gravity conditions). A total of 3 cell arrays, each of them comprised of 12 cylinders filled with different fluid mixtures samples, have been recorded with a HD video camera using a white background. The hardware was uploaded to the ISS on Progress M-13M (ISS-45-P), and all the video recordings have been downlinked to ground. E-USOC supported this activity through real time audio and video from the ISS.

The educational activities aim at introducing the concept of foams to European students age 10-14. School children will be able to operate their own identical experiment on ground and witness how foams differ under the influence of gravity compared to the ISS’s weightless environment. The study of the behaviour of foams under freefall conditions has strong practical applications: solid foams like aluminium foam are as strong as pure metal but much lighter, and they are used in advanced aerospace technology or manufacturing as well as cutting edge medical equipment. Food companies are also interested in the properties of champagne bubbles, heads of beer or chocolate mousse to develop better and tastier products on Earth.

The second part of the EPO Foam Stability experiment will be performed on 24th April 2012, along with another educational experiment called Convection. It will consist on a livelink connection between the station and different venues in several European countries, from which the school children will be able to ask questions to André Kuipers. Stay tuned and follow us to know the results of this livelink.

More information:

La entrada EPO Foam Stability aparece primero en E-USOC.

Fuente: E-USOC

ESA has invited schoolchildren aged between 12 -14 years to join the Greenhouse in Space project. This experiment, carried out by the Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, consists of growing flowering plants inside two separate small greenshouses set up in the Columbus laboratory and follows their germination over a two-month period. Students on the ground will make the observations of the plants in their own mini greenhouse and compare the results with Paolo’s space experiment, by means of both recorded and live-link activity for educational events.

The 5th year students from CEIP Luis Buñuel, a bilingual school located in the town of Alcobendas, have joined to conduct this experiment and have yet requested their mini greenhouse kit. On the 17th of February they came to our premises to follow a live event with real time video from the International Space Station, in which the astronaut watered the seeds of the space greenhouse for the first time.

The event was also followed by many students taking part in this exciting educational initiative from different schools all over Europe. They asked interesting questions to the astronaut like ‘how oxygen is generated on the ISS’ or ‘how many times do they have day and night at the ISS’ amongst others. The most stunning moment for our young science enthusiast visitors was Paolo’s demonstration about microgravity, when he made a big water drop to float in front of the camera before ending up in his mouth.

Click on this link to watch the streaming video for this activity.

Growing plants in space will be crucial for the astronauts of the future. When flying to Mars or even further, it will be necessary to produce fresh food onboard and become partially self-sufficient. Setting up greenhouses on the Moon, Mars or other planetary bodies will also be an important part of future exploration missions.

Greenhouses also provide oxygen and bring some life to the bleakness of space. Caring for plants is a good way to maintain memories of Earth and an enjoyable way to pass time during the long and possibly boring interplanetary cruise.

Ext. Source: ESA news – A greenhouse in space

MagISStra is the third six-month stay by a European astronaut on the Station, a fascinating mission pursuing the ISS triple goal: bringing the benefits of space science, technology and education from space back to Earth.

Nespoli will contribute to the scientific exploitation of Europe’s Columbus laboratory by carrying out an intensive programme of experiments, ranging from radiation monitoring to visual perception studies, which it is worth mentioning ESA’s novel 3D camera that will show unprecedented images of the ISS.

Ext. Source: ESA MagISStra Press Kit (pdf 5.95 MB)

La entrada Students from the school Luis Buñuel visit E-USOC to follow a live event: ‘Greenhouse in Space’ aparece primero en E-USOC.

Source: ESA

Last January 28th, IVIDIL was finally deinstalled, and officially successfully finished. A space experiment, from the operative point of view, is always a great challenge, since so many people from so many different working fields and specialties are involved. The intervention and commitment of quite a big number of actors from the American, Canadian and European space agencies and teams have made possible quick and effective solutions to all issues found during the preparation and execution of this experiment.

E-USOC has lead the task to coordinate scientific team needs and top industry developers knowledge and experience, also has been in charge of the planning and execution of the experiment onboard the Columbus module, and of the implementation of all necessary changes to get the best results with the limited available time and resources derived from working in such a special environment as the ISS.

A great effort, rewarded by outstanding results has been made from all sides in the demanding field of space operations

More information:

La entrada SODI IVIDIL Operations finished aparece primero en E-USOC.

Source: NASA

Today, astronaut Bob successfully achieved the SODI-IVIDIL cell array and flash disk exchange activity. After the comissioning, some pictures were taken to check that everything was nominal on the experiment and the optics.

E-USOC team is ready to support operations with this new cell array, whose beginning is scheduled on December 1st. So far, we’re very pleased about the evolution of these operations, emphasizing the fantastic cooperation with the scientific team and our NASA partners.

We’d like to take this opportunity to comment that UPM has published a new article about our latest experiments.

La entrada SODI IVIDIL Operations: 2nd Cell Array Installed aparece primero en E-USOC.