Monday, August 7, 2023

Flow boiling and condensation in microgravity

I'm mostly just glad they didn't use a cutesy acronym for this experiment (h/t Reynolds). It's billed as an airconditioning plan for future space-stations and space-craft, on assumption of microgravity. I have to consider its value on account I'd rather use a spinning (and shielded) station, with centrifugal-[pseudo]force standing in for G.

I concede: we might want lower gravity for purposes other than life-support - start with, manufacturing. For -craft, the propellants get heated up to gas before they get expelled and/or become plasma; those don't start with gravity. High-ISP ideas tend to be low-thrust meaning, the vessel isn't being pushed to appreciable accelerations. The article to its credit makes some note of much of this.

Somewhere in between our extremes, do we own a handle on phase-transitions in (say) Lunar gravity, or in both Lunar g's and a strong Coriolis? Asking for a queasy friend in the inner rings of the Elysium habitat.

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