ASTRONAUTS pedalling their exercise bikes risk wrecking expensive
microgravity experiments on the International Space Station because of the
vibrations they send rattling through the craft. So to protect delicate samples,
engineers have devised a miniature football-sized lab that will hold their
experiments suspended in mid-air.
Inside the microlab, six jets squirt precise amounts of gas to keep a bubble
of liquid or a chunk of solid centred in mid-air, well away from the walls. The
chamber will allow researchers to study how fluids behave in microgravity
without anything having to touch them, says Robert Gustafson of aerospace
company Orbitec in…
