Materials sciences

Abstract

Since the early days of Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz mission, research on metallic materials and crystal growth has been an inherent part of any microgravity research program (Naumann 1980). This chapter is devoted to materials processing and aims to describe challenges and goals of materials science in space in a way that enables a nonspecialist to understand the objectives of materials research in space, the principles of materials engineering, and the major achievements made in various microgravity missions in the past two decades. At the end of this chapter a prospective view of research to be performed on the International Space Station (ISS) is given.