ESA - Human Spaceflight and Exploration - What no bubbles? Results of the ARIEL experiment from Foton-M2 mission

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What no bubbles? Results of the ARIEL experiment from Foton-M2 mission

4 January 2006

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The unmanned Foton capsules are based on the Russian Vostok capsule, in which Yuri Gagarin was put into orbit in 1961.

Credits: ESA

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Left: Boiling in microgravity without electric field, (side view). Right: Boiling in weightlessness with electric field, (side view). This not only shows the much reduced size of the vapour bubbles but also the vapour bubbles that escape the heated surface.

Credits: ESA

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Boiling under normal gravity with no electric field, (side view). The similarity can be easily seen between this image and the image of boiling in weightlessness with an electric field

Credits: ESA

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Boiling normal gravity and weightlessness

Boiling under normal gravity (left) and in weightlessness (right) with no electric field and observed from the back of the heated surface. The increased formation of vapour in bubbles in weightlessness can be clearly observed

Credits: ESA

Lichen survives in space European experiments back on Earth with successful conclusion of Foton-M2 mission