Station Science Top News: April 07, 2023
Researchers conducted an autonomous electrochemical system prototype for measuring ammonia oxidation reactions (AORs) in microgravity using the station’s AELISS device. While the results indicate less-than-desired outcomes in the oxidation peak levels, researchers plan additional analyses of the hardware back on the ground, and the experiment provided a successful proof of concept. More efficient and effective AORs could enhance life support systems and extend the range and duration of future space missions.
AORs can convert ammonia to gaseous nitrogen, electrical energy, and hydroxide molecules that can produce water, and they could be instrumental in supporting environmental control and life support systems during long-duration spaceflights. AELISS tests the efficiency of a device that uses electricity to catalyze these reactions in microgravity. The next generation of hardware could use a larger and more complex system to improve working models.
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Using pixel detectors installed throughout the space station, researchers identified 130 cosmic ray showers over a 32-month period. They report that these showers represent a tiny fraction of the overall radiation field in low-Earth orbit, but that further study is needed to determine risks to human health.
The Radiation Environment Monitor tests technology for dosimeters that continuously and quickly measure space radiation exposure on ISS. Crews are exposed to radiation in space, and current technology does not provide information on radiation dose until several months after a mission. The dosimeters developed for this experiment could provide dosage data more quickly and help protect astronauts on future missions.
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Researchers demonstrated that rod patterns and lamellae (thin layers) can be present simultaneously in mixed metals. Varying parameters such as temperature and sample composition could provide further insight into the patterns that form during material solidification. Such insight has potential applications in industrial casting processes and the metallic products they create.
ESA’s Transparent Alloys-SETA studies the pattern formation in certain alloys during eutectic reactions (where a liquid, on cooling, transforms into two solid phases at the same time). In microgravity, this pattern formation process does not experience complicating effects of gravity, enabling better observation of pattern formation dynamics. Researchers noted that the rods elongated and split several times until the material became more resistant, preserving the formation of the new lamellae. Lamellae that remained anchored to the sample wall and grew slowly tended to form more stable patterns.
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