Jg. Vandegrift et al., DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION OF A MICROGRAVITY FURNACE SYSTEM FOR SINTERING EXPERIMENTS, Journal of spacecraft and rockets, 34(1), 1997, pp. 104-109
Microgravity experiments have been performed aboard STS-57, STS-60, an
d STS-63 with an isothermal high-temperature automated furnace, The eq
uipment for controlled liquid phase sintering experiments-SPACEHAB var
iant facility was used to conduct powder metallurgy experiments on com
pacts at temperatures exceeding 1100 degrees C. An overview of the evo
lution of the program from a laboratory mock-up through four sounding
rocket flights is presented, including a description of the hardware t
hat successfully operated during three Space Shuttle missions, These a
ccomplishments were traced directly to the decisions made and numerous
lessons learned throughout the applied research program. Development
of the hardware required an extremely interdisciplinary approach. A co
ntinuous path of upgrades was pursued between Eights, increasing capab
ilities while reducing payload mass and volume, This evolutionary expe
rience base resulted in significant cost and schedule savings, The des
ign features of containment and redundancy with the proven flight perf
ormance data minimized expensive component testing and analysis, The h
ardware was designed with inherent growth capabilities to maximize saf
ety, to promote longterm usage/future flight opportunities, and to sim
plify on-orbit operations. The next generation design scheduled to fly
aboard STS-79 (August 1996) also is described.