Alloys, Glasses and Other Materials
Do metals, alloys and metallic glasses benefit enough from microgravity to justify production in orbit?
Chapter summary
they benefit scientifically, but rarely commercially.
Key takeaways
- 1
Containerless processing in orbit, using electromagnetic or electrostatic levitation, lets researchers melt and cool alloys without crucibles, measure properties of molten metals precisely and produce glassy metals with unusual structures.
- 2
ESA's electromagnetic levitator on the ISS and similar facilities have generated data used to model casting and turbine-blade manufacturing on Earth.
- 3
But structural materials are worth dollars to hundreds of dollars per kilogram, thousands of times less than capsule costs.
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