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Toward a Microgravity Research Strategy (Chapter 4)
Toward a Microgravity Research Strategy
4
Toward the Development of
a Research Strategy
The Committee on Microgravity Research recommends that a
longterm research strategy, such as that developed by each of the Space
Studies Board's other discipline committees, be developed for microgravity
science. The strategy should be based on the following considerations:
1. It should be recognized that, to date, no examples have been found of
materials that arc worthy of manufacture in space. Unless and until such
examples are found, space manufacturing of products to be used on Earth
should be deemphasized as a reason for undertaking microgravity
research.
The descriptor "materials processing" should not be used for NASA's
REPORT MENU budget line item because it is misleading. The CMGR recommends that
NOTICE "microgravity research" be used instead.
MEMBERSHIP
SUMMARY
2. The main rationale for the microgravity research program should be to
CHAPTER 1
improve our fundamental scientific and technological knowledge base,
CHAPTER 2
particularly in areas that are likely to lead to improvements in processing and
CHAPTER 3
manufacturing on Earth. A secondary rationale should be to develop the
CHAPTER 4
technologies for handling materials in space and possibly for processing
APPENDIX A
materials to be used in space.
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
APPENDIX D 3. The g-level (acceleration vector environment) must be measured
APPENDIX E accurately, locally, frequently, and synchronously with every experiment. These
APPENDIX F data must be provided to each principal investigator immediately.
4. Experiments that appear to have produced promising results should be
repeated to examine reproducibility. Most results to date are the product of single
experiments.
5. A number of examples illustrate clearly that microgravity makes a
measurable difference. The question is: Why? Critical experiments should be
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Toward a Microgravity Research Strategy (Chapter 4)
designed and conducted to learn why certain phenomena occur in microgravity,
not merely to exhibit that they do occur.
6. A thorough program of ground-based research must precede and
succeed every microgravity flight. Much of this research will form a context for the
flight program but will not be directly related to a flight experiment. Such a context
is very important because of the high relative cost of flight experiments. Points 7
to 9 below pertain to this ground-based program.
7. Much more effort needs to be made to model phenomena suggested
by microgravity observations. In many cases, models are obsolete (e.g., for
eutectic growth) or nonexistent (e.g., for protein crystal growth).
8. The materials used in microgravity experiments should be
characterized thoroughly both before and after flight. The thermophysical data
needed to interpret experiments should be measured as a part of the program if
they are unavailable from the literature.
9. Whenever exemplary materials are produced in microgravity,
considerable effort should be made to replicate them through Earth-based
research, which is much less expensive and might lead to commercial
applications.
10. The interest in electronic materials today is in thin films; bulk
electronic materials are of secondary importance and should be studied in
microgravity only if their quality as substrates or primary components is important
or to the extent that such studies can yield fundamental knowledge about
processing.
11. Research opportunities should involve a planned budgeted balance of
focused opportunities, some communicated by an Announcement of Opportunity
(AO) from NASA and others funded on the basis of unsolicited proposals
submitted to NASA. The field is still very young, and so many good ideas are yet
to come. If AOs are used to distribute too much of the funding, growth of the best
ideas will be stifled, and the field will not be intellectually exciting to the scientific
community.
12. The funding level for research and analysis in microgravity science
should be established as a fixed percentage of the total program of NASA's
Microgravity Science and Applications Division in order to build a strong scientific
base for future experiments.
13. NASA and its advisory committees should analyze and classify
experiments according to their minimum facility requirements so that they can be
carried out in the most cost-effective manner. From this classification, candidate
experiments for drop towers, free-falling aircraft, sounding rockets, the Space
Shuttle, space stations, or free-flying spacecraft can be identified.
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Toward a Microgravity Research Strategy (Chapter 4)
14. Most microgravity equipment should accomplish specific experiments
and should be designed and built in close cooperation with the principal
investigator(s). The designing and building of multiuser facilities for anticipated
experiments should be avoided.
15. The centers for the commercial development of space should be
reviewed technically to ensure their quality and to ascertain to what degree their
original mission of becoming independent through industrial funding has been
accomplished.
Based on the above points, a strategy for microgravity research should
include:
1. A definition of the overall goals of the microgravity science field;
2. A summary of the current knowledge that is related to strategic
considerations;
3. A statement of the fundamental questions that need to be answered;
4. The overall strategy and its rationale, derived from and based on the
fundamental questions and the ability to address them;
5. The primary scientific objectives ranked in order of their priorities
(together with the value criteria used);
6. A set of experiments required to achieve the stated objectives;
7. Definition of the requirements for such experiments and their
accommodation in various facilities and low-gravity experiment modes, which
reduces total cost and enhances the productivity of experiments;
8. Other resources needed for a successful scientific program, such as
access to space, operational support, and ground-based research;
9. The indicators for a successful scientific program, for example,
comparison with accomplishments attained during ground-based equivalents of
experiment time, equipment utilization, and so on.
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