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| Maintenance Work Area /
ISS Research Project |
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| The Dust and Aerosol Measurement
Feasibility Test (DAFT) |
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 The
Dust and Aerosol Measurement Feasibility Test (DAFT) was designed to
ensure that a modified P-Trak®—a key component of the forthcoming
NASA Smoke Aerosol Measurement Experiment (SAME)—will perform
properly in the unique environment of microgravity. If the P-Trak® performs
as expected, the device will be used in SAME to provide data that will
help scientists design better fire detectors for future, longduration,
manned missions. |
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| Capillary Flow Experiments
(CFE), Capillary Flow Experiments-2 (CFE-2) |
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 The
Capillary Flow Experiments (CFEs) are a suite of fluid physics flight
experiments designed to investigate large length scale capillary flows
and phenomena in low gravity. The CFE data to be obtained will be crucial
to the Space Exploration Initiative, particularly as it pertains to
fluids management systems such as fuels and cryogen storage systems,
water collection and recycling, thermal control systems, and materials
processing in the liquid state. NASA’s current plans for
exploration missions assume the use of larger liquid propellant masses
than have ever flown on interplanetary missions. Under low-gravity conditions,
capillary forces can be exploited to control fluid orientation so that
such large mission-critical systems perform more reliably.
CFE is a simple fundamental scientific study that can yield quantitative
results from safe, low-cost, short time-to-flight, handheld fluids experiments.
The experiments aim to provide results of critical interest to the capillary
flow community that cannot be achieved in ground-based tests such as
tests to probe dynamic effects associated with a movingcontact boundary
condition, capillary-driven flows in interior corner networks, and critical
wetting phenomena in complex geometries. Specific applications of the
results center on particular fluids challenges concerning propellant
tanks. The knowledge gained will help spacecraft fluid systems designers
increase system reliability, decrease system mass, and reduce overall
system complexity.
CFE encompasses three experiments with two unique experimental units
per experiment. There are multiple tests per experiment. Each of the
experiments employs parametric ranges and test cell dimensions that
cannot be achieved in groundbased experiments. All units use similar
fluid injection hardware, have simple and similarly sized test chambers,
and rely solely on video for highly quantitative data. Silicone oil
will be used for these tests. Differences between units are primarily
fluid properties, wetting conditions, and test cell geometry. The experiment
procedures are simple and intuitive. |
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| Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3
(BCAT-3) |
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 The
Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-3 is an Exploration Systems' transition
flight experiment in the Human System Research and Technology area.
BCAT-3 provides a unique opportunity to explore fundamental physics
and simultaneously develop important future technology, including computers
operating on light, complex biomolecular pharmaceuticals, clean sources
of geothermal power, and novel rocket engines for interplanetary travel.
These studies depend entirely on the microgravity environment provided
by the International Space Station (ISS); in all other locations accessible
to science, gravity dominates and precludes investigation of any other
effects of interest. The experiment itself is simple and elegant, photographing
samples of colloidal particles with a digital camera onboard the ISS.
Colloids are tiny nanoscale spheres of plexiglass a thousand times smaller
than the width of a human hair (submicron radius) that are suspended
in a fluid. They are ubiquitous (e.g., milk, smoke, and paint) and therefore
interesting to study directly. Colloids are also small enough that they
behave much like atoms and so can be used to model all sorts of phenomena
because their size, shape, and interactions can be controlled. The 10
samples in BCAT-3 are made from the same ingredients, each a recipe
with different proportions, and are grouped into three experiments:
critical point, binary alloy, and surface crystallization.
Astronaut Leroy Chiao works
on the BCAT-3 experiment on the International Space Station. Credit:
NASA
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| Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-4
(BCAT-4) |
|
 Binary
Colloidal Alloy Test-4 (BCAT-4) is a fluids experiment with two parts:
BCAT-4-CP and BCAT-4-Poly.
The BCAT-4-CP part of the experiment from Harvard University (David
Weitz and Peter Lu) and Simon Fraser University (Barbara Frisken and
Arthur Bailey) will measure phase separation rates and properties
of a model critical fluid system. Acquiring this data should
lead to a much better understanding of the shelf-life of products
and how to extend it. This portion of this microgravity experiment
will be accomplished by photographing the time evolution of seven
critical point (CP) samples, which will add needed points to the phase
diagram outlined by the related critical point samples in the BCAT-3
experiment.
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| Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-5
(BCAT-5) |
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 The
BCAT-5 experiment has started operations on the International Space
Station (ISS). It contains experiments from five teams of scientists
in a collaborative effort with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and
is the first stand-alone experiment to be run in the Japanese Experiment
Module (JEM) on the ISS.
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| Binary Colloidal Alloy Test-6
(BCAT-6) |
|
 The
BCAT-6 investigation is structured from a rich history of space flight
experiments that explore the fundamental physical science and application
of colloids in a microgravity environment. Colloids are a type of homogeneous
mixture in which very small particles of one substance are distributed
evenly throughout another substance. Paints, milk, fog, butter, smoke,
ink, paint are colloids. The BCAT-6 series hardware consists of the
same design as that used for BCAT-4 and BCAT-5. This effort will address
fundamental questions in colloidal engineering that impact product shelf
life and determine how concentrated systems of particles of select sizes
and shapes cause order to naturally arise out of disorder when gravity
is removed.
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