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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.

In her own words “[…] I think it´s really incredible science so I’m looking forward to DCMIX team […] thank you guys I hope you get some cool results. […]“

Wilco! Thanks to you Kate, you are indeed our rock star!

Source: NASA

– [Kate Rubins] Copy Houston…And Hunstville Station on Space to Ground 2 for SODI.

– [Paycom] With you on 2, Kate.

– [Kate Rubins] I just wanted to let you know the photos are available for downlink on SSC20 and Andria, you are an absolute rock star! Thank you for being a fantastic PAYCOM, and getting us through a complex and very cool set up today and I just want to take a moment to say thank you to the all of the folks at Hunstville that are doing operations, the SODI team, the MSG team. You guys are really impressive with what you’re able to do with these procedures. It’s really smooth getting the stuff in, even when we hit a little snag we figure it out quickly, and I think it´s really incredible science so I’m looking forward to the DCMIX team. I’m not exactly an expert on tripartite hydrocarbon mixtures but, it’s very cool. I’ve actually been reading up on it because it’s so interesting. I didn’t know a lot about thermodiffusion, on how microgravity affects thermodynamic modelling, but it´s really a fascinating example of the kind of variety of science we have up here so thank you guys, I hope you get some cool results. And also to Munich, to Uwe. Thank you very much for the training at EAC. I still remember that class and that helped me out a lot with the big picture today. So I appreciate it, to all those folks.

– [Paycom] Thanks Kate, Hunstville copies all and will pass on all those good words, and considering we started the activity with a couple of screws loose, I think we did pretty well.

– [Kate Rubins] I was saying the same thing, so thank you so much again!

La entrada SODI-DCMIX: happy to see you again! aparece primero en E-USOC.

Development and validation of the on-board procedures and automatic scripts, planning of the on-board activities, remote control and monitoring of the payload, troubleshooting of anomalies in a quick and agile way, data retrieval and dissemination to the scientific community, have been some of the tasks carried on by E-USOC in this project, for which there has been a tight coordination and collaboration with NASA.

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins (@astroillini) installed ESA’s Selectable Optical Diagnostics Instrument (SODI) inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) on November 14, although the Cell Array (CA) of fluids was not installed until the end of the month, when it reached the ISS aboard the Progress 53 cargo ship. One of the most determining factors for the success of the mission was the limited lifetime of those fluid samples, an event determined by the appearance of bubbles. So, prior to its arrival to the Space Station, E-USOC team conducted a thorough optical checkout and calibration tests of relevant importance, because they allowed to start operating and generating useful science data from the very first moment of the Cell Array installation.

The mission concluded successfully after more than two month of operations. The payload was uninstalled on February 7th and the Cell Array was removed and is planned to be disposed of (destructive re-entry in a Progress spacecraft).

From the scientific point of view, the experiment has generated a substantial amount of high quality images of great value for the analysis of the processes involved in the diffusion of ternary fluid mixtures. In light of these good results, both NASA and ESA agreed to extend the operations one additional week. The extra activities turned out to produce more valuable science data, not considered initially in the mission’s main purposes. For example, the gas bubble appearing in the liquid cell over time was used by the science team for thermo/solute capillary (Marangoni effect) convection runs. Furthermore, downloaded images from the primary runs already seem to prove the predicted huge Soret effect.

E-USOC has received international recognition for the great performance in these operations. The European Space Agency in particular said:

“The Agency would like to remark outstanding activities done by E-USOC in performing SODI-DCMIX2 and the positive conclusion of the DCMIX2 experiments, as also positively acknowledged by the science community. The Agency congratulates E-USOC to this success.”

Source: NASA

It is worth mentioning that the E-USOC team member José Miguel Ezquerro has been nominated to the prestigious Zeldovich Medal, a prize awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the COSPAR Space Scientific Committee to young scientists for their excellence.

DCMIX2 is the second of a series of five experiments. E-USOC has been designated by ESA as responsible for the SODI payload, and has already started working on the preparation activities for DCMIX3, foreseen for the end of 2014.

La entrada SODI-DCMIX2: From the ISS to the oil field aparece primero en E-USOC.

After 13 months of continuous operations and more than 260 GB of science data generated, science campaign for GeoFlow-2 can be considered a huge success, overpassing all expectative and giving more results than initially expected. GeoFlow-2 objective was to generate further results to check and improve numeric models of the Earth mantle. That information complements the results obtained by geological phenomena numeric simulators, confirming or ameliorating their conclusions.

The experiment has investigated the flow of an incompressible viscous fluid (alkanol 1-Nonanol) held between two concentric spheres. A central force field was introduced by applying a high voltage difference between the two spheres. Maintaining the inner sphere at a higher temperature to the outer sphere also created a temperature gradient from inside to outside. Finally both spheres rotated at up to 2Hz. This geometrical configuration can be seen as a representation of the Earth, where the role of gravity is played by the central electric field; nevertheless the unidirectional term due to real gravity had to be eliminated, being that the main reason why microgravity was fundamental for this experiment.

Understanding and controlling fluid flow in a spherical geometry under the influence of rotation will also be useful in a variety of engineering applications, such as improving spherical gyroscopes and bearings, and centrifugal pumps. Furthermore, study of effects, which serve to simulate the central gravity field, will find applications in areas such as high-performance heat exchangers and in the study of electroviscous phenomena. It will also help to understand the motion of liquids in several ground-based industrial applications where injected ions are a source of charge, e.g. in electrostatic precipitators and ion-drag pumps.

GeoFlow-2, as its predecessor, works inside the Fluid Science Laboratory onboard Columbus. GeoFlow-2 operations, performed by the E-USOC in collaboration with MARS (Microgravity Advanced Research and Support Centre), ended in May 2012, and are expected to be resumed under the name of GeoFlow-2B before 2013.

More information:

La entrada Discover GeoFlow-2: an Earth model inside the ISS 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.

Source: E-USOC

This second attempt was requested by scientists to clarify the following scientific aspects detected after the thorough experiment analysis from the COLLOID data obtained last year:

After three weeks of operations inside the MSG rack, COLLOID-2 objectives were fulfilled, generating around 93 GB of scientific data. This successful science achievement came together with the completion of 10.000 hours of MSG work on board the ISS.

COLLOID container was removed from MSG rack on 4th October 2011 and stored temporarily in the ISS for its further disposal. The Flash disk containing all the scientific data will be downloaded next spring within the new SpaceX-1 spacecraft, providing the scientists with a good set of valuable data for their research.

Related links:

La entrada COLLOID-2: diving into colloidal structures 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.