Glass In Spaaaaace

AnKsT wrote to mention an article on NASA's site about creating and manipulating glass in space. From the article: "In microgravity...you don't need a container. In Day's initial experiments, the melt--a molten droplet about 1/4 inch in diameter--was held in place inside a hot furnace simply by the pressure of sound waves emitted by an acoustic levitator. With that acoustic levitator, explains Day, 'we could melt and cool and melt and cool a molten droplet without letting it touch anything.' As Day had hoped, containerless processing produced a better glass. To his surprise, though, the glass was of even higher quality than theory had predicted."

Comments

*Crash!*

[Reaperducer]

And best of all... In space, no one can hear you break the glass.

Why this matters

[FunWithHeadlines]

No, it's not to make purer martini glasses for snobs who demand only the very best. From the article:

"But why is that important? What's wrong with glass made of silica?

For windows silica is just fine. But glass made from other chemical compositions offers a panoply of unexpected properties. For example, there are "bioactive glasses" that can be used to repair human bones. These glasses eventually dissolve when their work is done. On the other hand, Day has developed glasses which are so insoluble in the body that they are being used to treat cancer by delivering high doses of radiation directly to a tumor site."

Cool beans!

Re:purity

[Anonymous Coward]

Not using this technique. TFA says the reason glass is so much more pure in microgravity is because it is RESISTANT to crystallization under such conditions.

Up-to-date

[Anonymous Coward]

April 14, 2003... Slashdot is really a frontrunner. Next they'll report that Bush won a second term in office...

Re:Purer carbon nanotubes too?

[TripMaster Monkey]

Is it easier to purify carbon nanotubes in microgravity too?

Short answer: yes.

Re:purity

[Rei]

That would be a dream - under 1900$/kg? The shuttle cost estimates vary, but are usually over 15,000$/kg. ESA bulk launches are 10,000$/kg. Bulk Russian and Chinese rocket launches are around 7,000$/kg. SpaceX thinks that by the time they get to their Falcon V, they'll be down to almost 2500$/kg (which would be truly incredible - time will tell if they can pull it off).