Materials Processing in Space

There has been considerable interest recently in microgravity physics and the effects of gravitation on crystal growth, alloy solidification, and other processes in space manufacturing. Regel' [1] has provided an extensive but not exhaustive bibliography on micro gravity physics and materials science in space, in which the major aspects are discussed along with the state of the art and future research prospects. The literature survey in [1] covered a period of about 10 years, including some publications appearing in 1983 that reflected not only theoretical and experi­ mental studies completed by 1983 but also a list of experiments to be carried out in the next few years. In particular, the closing part of the survey [1] enumerated ex­ periments planned under the Intercosmos program and by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the flight of Spacelab-l and D-l in 1985 and under the Eureka programs. Some of the space experiments planned in 1983 have now been com­ pleted, and the results have been published. It is therefore desirable to survey again research on materials science in space for the last few years and extend the literature survey begun in [1]. The literature listing on materials science in space begun in [1] is supplemented (there were 1061 citations in [1]) by recent publications (beginning with 1982).