Material Science Lab operations onboard the International Space Station

The Materials Science Laboratory (MSL) onboard the International Space Station is designed for the research on solidification processes under microgravity conditions. It is equipped with two exchangeable furnace inserts of Bridgman-type allowing temperatures of up to 1400 ◦C. MSL is operated under ESA contract by the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) at DLR in Cologne in collaboration with Marshal Space Flight Center at Huntsville which is responsible for the Materials Science Research Rack (MSRR) which hosts MSL and provides services. MSL was launched in 2009 and installed in the US Destiny laboratory module. Since then a number of experiments by different project teams have been performed and research is still ongoing. Since 2018, a new type of cartridges developed by NASA allows investigation of sintering processes within MSL. The paper will give a survey on MSL operations over the last decade and provide an outlook for future MSL planning

Material Science Lab Operations onboard the International Space Station

The Materials Science Laboratory (MSL) onboard the International Space Station (ISS) is designed for the research of various solidification processes under microgravity conditions – ranging from directional solidification over sintering processes to growth of semiconductor crystals from vapor deposition. It is equipped with two exchangeable furnace inserts of Bridgman-type allowing processing temperatures of up to 1400 °C with various temperature gradients. MSL is operated under ESA contract by the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) at DLR in Cologne in collaboration with Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) at Huntsville, Alabama USA, which is responsible for the Materials Science Research Rack (MSRR-1) that hosts MSL. MSL, launched in 2009 and installed in the US Destiny laboratory module, performed in the course of 13 years in operation more than 48 experiments by different international project teams, with research still ongoing. With the deployment of NASA’s unique multi-purpose cartridge - first utilized for investigations of sintering processes within MSL between 2019/2020, ESA and NASA, will utilize MSL for future investigations. This paper will give an overview on the new challenges MSL science operations will face in these future activities, ranging from directional solidification to semiconductor growth from vapor deposition, with different requirements