- Number 296 |
- September 28, 2009
Crystal Growth in Space
Researcher Rohit
Trivedi hopes
crystal
growth experiments on
board the International
Space
Station will help
explain how
crystals,
such as these nickel
-based superconductors,
form.
A research project 10 years in the making is now orbiting the Earth, much to the delight of its creator Rohit Trivedi, a senior metallurgist at DOE’s Ames Laboratory. Equipment recently delivered to the International Space Station by the Space Shuttle Discovery will allow the Earth-bound Trivedi to conduct crystal growth experiments. The goal is to use the microgravity environment on board the Space Station to determine how materials form crystals as they move from liquid to solid and what effect variations in growth conditions have on crystallization patterns. The hope is that low gravity may negate some of he effects of convection in the liquid.
[Kerry Gibson, 515.294.1405,
kgibson@ameslab.gov]
