Containerless processing technology

A partial description of the technology, hardware, and facilities developed by NASA in support of space-based containerless processing experiments in the early 1970s is presented, along with recent results. Supercooling was necessary, at a rate of 500 K over a 400 ft span, in early drop tower and molten sample experiments. Placing an electromagnetic levitation coil/chamber at the top of the tube avoided contamination of the sample by guide wires. Recent tests have been performed in attempts to produce metastable bulk A-15 Nb3Ge. The use of copper coils for levitation is suspected to have induced stirring motions in samples. Aerodynamic levitation, needed for nonconducting materials, has been employed to process glass beads at temperatures over 1000 K. An electromagnetic levitation device used to process a gram of BeO on a sounding rocket flight will be carried on a Shuttle flight, as will an acoustic suspension system.