Future Experiments and Improved Service System for Automated MAUS Payloads

Abstract

The German MAUS project for autonomous material science experiments was initiated in 1980 for optimum utilization of NASA's GAS program. It is one of the flight opportunities which is offered by the FRG to scientists for performing experiments under microgravity conditions. A payload can either be flown in the American GAS-program or with specific carrier structures. Ten MAUS experiments were flown and currently seven payloads are in preparation for future Space Shuttle missions. The experiments deal with critical Marangoni convection, oscillatory Marangoni convection, gas bubbles in glass melts and pool boiling in liquids.