A New Kind of Space Materials Processing Facility in China
- Paper number
IAC-05-A2.5.05
- Author
Dr. Liu Yan, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science, China
- Coauthor
Ms. Yanfei Zhou, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science, China
- Year
2005
- Abstract
A new kind of space materials processing facility has been designed for use on-board the "SZ (ShenZhou)" spacecrafts in China. It consists of three main parts, i.e. the furnace, the mechanism transmission system and the controller. The furnace is designed for Bridgman growth, which can achieve up to 1000 øC with a temperature gradient of 70 øC/cm. The mechanism transmission system consists of sample exchange assembly and the sample translation assembly. The controller is a programmable microprocessor system, which is responsible for the operation of the facility. Six kinds of different materials, including semiconductors, oxide crystals, glasses, metals and alloys, can be automatically processed in this facility during one flight. Each of the sample cartridges is 22 mm in diameter and 260 mm in length; the total mass is 27 Kg and the average power consumption is less than 75 watts. The more detail design features as well as performance test results under microgravity on-board the Chinese "SZ-3" unmanned spacecraft launched in March 2002 are presented in this paper.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-A2.5.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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