Solidification Furnace For Microgravity Experiments On Sounding Rockets

The Brazilian Microgravity Program is mainly based on experiments carried out on sounding rockets. Up to present days, three missions carrying a total of 25 experiments were made. In all fights, a fast solidification furnace, capable of producing temperatures up to 900 degrees C, was used to process metal and semiconductor alloys in microgravity environment. This paper has described the furnace and the solidification experiment made during the last parabolic fight, called Maracati Mission, which has occurred in December, 2010.