Electrostatic levitation furnace experiment for "Kibo" on the international space station

Containerless processing techniques combined with non-contact diagnostic methods play significant roles in thermo-physical property measurements of high temperature melts because these methods can circumvent problems which arise from a reaction between container and melts. The electrostatic levitation method uses Coulomb force between charged samples and electrodes and it controls the sample position by using high speed feedback from the camera image. The ELF can measure the density, surface tension, and viscosity of high temperature materials. Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has studied the fundamental technique of electrostatic levitation, and measured a variety of thermo-physical data by using ground a electrostatic levitation furnace for more than ten years¹⁾²⁾. Due to the effect of gravity, however, it is limited to levitating certain types of samples such as oxides, on earth. To resolve this issue, JAXA has developed the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace (ELF) which will be operated in "Kibo", which is Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) on International Space Station. JEM ELF is currently in the critical design phase and functional testing have been conducted by using a grounded model of ELF since 2012 in order to obtain the characteristics regarding observation, heating or positioning control capabilities. This paper shows the overview of JEM ELF project including forward plan.