Light Microscopy Module: An On-Orbit Microscope Planned for the Fluids and Combustion Facility on the International Space Station

Abstract

The Light Microscopy Module (LMM) is planned as a fully remotely controllable on-orbit microscope subrack facility, allowing flexible scheduling and control of fluids and biology experiments within NASA Glenn Research Center's Fluids and Combustion Facility on the International Space Station. Within the Fluids and Combustion Facility, four fluids physics experiments will utilize an instrument built around a light microscope. These experiments are the Constrained Vapor Bubble experiment (Peter C. Wayner of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), the Physics of Hard Spheres Experiment-2 (Paul M. Chaikin of Princeton University), the Physics of Colloids in Space-2 experiment (David A. Weitz of Harvard University), and the Low Volume Fraction Colloidal Assembly experiment (Arjun G. Yodh of the University of Pennsylvania). The first experiment investigates heat conductance in microgravity as a function of liquid volume and heat flow rate to determine, in detail, the transport process characteristics in a curved liquid film. The other three experiments investigate various complementary aspects of the nucleation, growth, structure, and properties of colloidal crystals in microgravity and the effects of micromanipulation upon their properties. Key diagnostic capabilities for meeting the science requirements of the four experiments include video microscopy to observe sample features including basic structures and dynamics, interferometry to measure vapor bubble thin film thickness, laser tweezers for colloidal particle manipulation and patterning, confocal microscopy to provide enhanced three-dimensional visualization of colloidal structures, and spectrophotometry to measure colloidal crystal photonic properties