This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The research team led by materials scientist Ralf Busch from Saarland University is preparing for its first science-in-space mission. If everything goes to plan, from 31 August the researchers will spend one week remotely studying metallic-glass alloys in experiments carried out on board the International Space Station, ISS.
Working with the European Space Agency, ESA, and the German Aerospace Center, DLR, the team will investigate the properties of these alloys using hot, levitating droplets. The aim is to obtain new, high-precision data that will help to further improve the material. A follow-up series of ISS experiments involving other alloys is already in preparation.
What makes the International Space Station so valuable for the Saarbrücken materials researchers is the apparent weightlessness experienced on board. At an altitude of around 400 kilometers (250 miles), Earth's gravitational pull is not actually that much smaller than at the planet's surface, but because the ISS is traveling forward at very high speed, it doesn't fall back to Earth but remains in a continuous free-fall orbit around the planet—and everything on board appears weightless as a result. This sustained state of suspension is exactly what Ralf Busch's research team at Saarland University needs: droplets of their new alloy that can remain stable and stationary during measurement.
Busch is one of the international pioneers in the field of metallic glass. Metallic glasses are metals that solidify like glass. In numerous research projects, the German federal government and the DFG, Busch and his team have been developing and refining these novel alloys, which can be tailored to have specific properties.
The word "glass" should not be interpreted to mean that a metallic glass is fragile. On the contrary, these alloys are stronger than steel. "They are also elastic and at elevated temperatures can be formed like plastics, which means they can be processed using techniques such as injection molding or metal 3D printing," says Busch.
This allows metallic glasses to be shaped into complex geometries of almost any kind, a further active area of research for Busch and his team. His research group at Saarland University already holds several patents for novel, ultra-high-strength alloys with new properties. The metallic glasses being developed in Saarbrücken are new materials whose properties can be tailored for use in engines and machinery.
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