Prolonged exposure to microgravity is known to invoke physiological changes which predispose individuals to orthostatic intolerance upon readaptation to the earth's gravitational field. Attenuated baroreflex responsiveness has been implicated in contributing to this inability to withstand orthostatic stress. To test this hypothesis, eight individuals were exposed to 15 days of simulated microgravity exposure using the 6° head-down bed rest model. Prior to, and after the simulated microgravity exposure, the following were assessed: a) aortic baroreflex function; b) carotid baroreflex function; c) cardiopulmonary baroreflex function; and d) the degree of interaction between the cardiopulmonary and carotid baroreflexes.

<div>As space exploration continues to accelerate, various cooling applications follow suit. Refrigeration and freezing of biological samples, astronaut food as well as electronics cooling and air-conditioning are necessary and demand increased capacity. In the past, these demands have been met by thermoelectric cooling or cryogenic cycles, which are easily adapted to a microgravity environment but have a relatively low efficiency in the refrigeration and freezing temperature range. A number of studies have investigated the development of higher efficiency vapor compression cycles for spacecraft, which would have the benefit of a smaller mass penalty due to the reduced power consumption. Despite notable research efforts during the 1990s, the number of vapor compression coolers that have operated in microgravity until today is small and their performance was insufficient to provide confidence into the technology for microgravity applications. Related experimental research has decreased since the 2000s.<br></div><div><br></div><div>For this dissertation, all vapor compression cycles (VCC) that have operated in microgravity according to the open literature were reviewed with their applications, compressor types and reported issues. Suggested design tools were summarized with a focus on gravity independence criteria for two-phase flow. For the most effective increase of the technology readiness level, simple but systematic experiments regarding the stability of VCCs against orientation and gravity changes were prioritized in this dissertation. An important goal of the research was the continuous operation and start-up of vapor compression cycles on parabolic flights, experiments that have not been reported in the open literature. Two separate test stands were built and flown on four parabolic flights, totaling 122 parabolas for each experiment.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The parabolic flight experiments were prepared with extensive ground-based testing. Multiple anomalies were encountered during the pursuit of continuous vapor compression cycle operation through a rotation of 360 degrees, including liquid flooding of the compressor. Systematic inclination testing was conducted with two different cycle configurations and a wide range of operating conditions. A strong correlation was found between the relative stability of the heat source heat transfer rate and the refrigerant mass flux for an inclination procedure with angle changes once every 2 minutes.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The parabolic flights exposed the test stand to quickly alternating hyper and microgravity. The evaporation temperature reacted to the different gravity levels with fluctuations that stretched on average 2.2 K from the maximum to minimum temperature measured during one set of parabolas. Changes of the evaporator inlet flow regime as a function of gravity were observed visually and the low-side pressure and mass flow rate sometimes oscillated in microgravity. The cycle responses induced by ground-based inclination testing were typically stronger than changes caused by the parabolic flight maneuvers for relatively low mass flow rates. Overall, the parabolic flight maneuvers were not detrimental to the cycle operation. <br></div><div><br></div><div>The second test stand was dedicated to liquid flooding observations at cycle start-up. Different flow regimes were observed in microgravity during testing with a transparent evaporator but the absence of gravity did not significantly alter the general time-based flooding quantifiers.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Design recommendations are drawn from the research where possible and summarized at the end of the dissertation. Selected data, code, pictures and videos were released together with this dissertation(Brendel, 2021)<br></div>

The focus of this thesis is development of an electronic subsystem for reduced gravity impact simulator. The research part of this thesis firstly covers methods used for simulation of microgravity or reduced gravity and compares them. Another part of research focuses on three selected potential approaches to creating the electronic subsystem for this device. The second, practical, part of this thesis describes the design and development of the electronic subsystem. The foundation of the electronic subsystem is a control unit which has been developed on the basis of an STMicroelectronics microcontroller. Using the control unit, the electronic subsystem measures pressure, position, acceleration and force in the system. Another task of the control unit is control of a stepper motor. Integration of individual elements into the electronic subsystem is described both in terms of software and hardware. Furthermore, a graphic user interface program for PC has been developed as a means to interact with the system. In the final part of the thesis, the operation of the electronic subsystem is described and lastly, the electronic subsystem is evaluated.

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The diploma thesis is focused on the development of the concept of a mechanical device that would meet the necessary requirements to achieve a successful simulation of reduced gravity or microgravity on the tested body at its impact. The choice of a suitable mechanism is based on a literary research of all available variants and highlight of their specifics. Target values are created for the selected method of testing, upon reaching which the concept will be considered successful. In order to verify the functionality of the concept, a mechanism is assembled on a smaller scale. The individual components of the mechanism are tested and carefully selected. All essential physical processes taking place in the system are mathematically described and combined into a MATLAB script. A separate application is created to calculate the behavior of the system based on the specified input parameters.

We study the formation and spreading of a turbulent jet of bubbles in microgravity. This has been analyzed from the recordings obtained in previous experimental campaigns of microgravity. Results have been compared with a simplified model of passive bubbles, in which bubbles are advected by the mean flow and dispersed due to the local degree of turbulence at each point of the jet. Thanks to the expertise obtained with this part of the thesis, we have designed and built a new experiment that has been used 36 times in the 4.7 s drop tower of ZARM (“Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity”) in Bremen. With this experiment we have obtained, for the first time in history, a monodisperse suspension of bubbles, within a turbulent flow, in microgravity. From the resulting measures we have characterized the relaxation time of pseudo-turbulence (previously generated due to the effect of buoyancy forces upon the injected bubbles in normal gravity conditions). We have also studied the interaction between bubbles and the turbulent medium. Results have been compared with Lattice-Boltzmann simulations of the flow. On the other hand, we have also studied the impact of residual gravitational vibrations (known as g-jitters) upon the quality of semiconductors solidified in microgravity. The quality of the resulting crystals has been studied from the analysis of the inhomogeneities in their dopant concentration. This study has been based entirely on simulations, but g-jitters have been modeled from acceleration signals measured in real space missions. / En la present tesi s’estudia, en primer lloc, la formació d’un doll turbulent de bombolles en condicions de microgravetat. Aquest ha sigut analitzat a partir del tractament de les gravacions obtingudes per altres investigadors en experiments de microgravetat. Els resultats s’han comparat amb un model simplificat de bombolles passives, en el que aquestes són arrossegades pel flux mitjà i, simultàniament, són dispersades degut al grau local de turbulència a cada punt. Gràcies a la experiència obtinguda en aquest anàlisi, s’ha dissenyat un nou experiment que ha sigut utilitzat en 36 llançaments de la torre de caiguda de 4.7 segons del ZARM (“Centre de Tecnologia Espacial Aplicada i Microgravetat”) a Bremen. Amb aquest experiment s’ha aconseguit, per primera vegada a la història, una suspensió monodispersa de bombolles, en el sí d’un flux turbulent, en condicions de microgravetat. A partir dels resultats obtinguts, s’ha caracteritzat per primera vegada el temps de relaxació de la pseudo-turulència (generada prèviament degut a l’efecte de les forces de flotació sobre les bombolles injectades en gravetat normal). També s’ha estudiat l’efecte causat per les bombolles en el medi turbulent. Els resultats han sigut comparats amb simulacions realitzades mitjançant el model de Lattice-Boltzmann. Per altra banda, s’ha estudiat també l’efecte que tenen les vibracions gravitatòries residuals sobre la qualitat de semiconductors solidificats en microgravetat. S’ha analitzat la qualitat dels cristalls resultants a partir de l’estudi de les inhomogeneïtats en la concentració de dopant. Aquest estudi ha sigut realitzat íntegrament a base de simulacions, però s’han establert els paràmetres dominants del soroll gravitatori a partir de valors mesurats en missions espacials reals.

This thesis presents a research project in the field of oxygen system fire safety relating to the heterogeneous burning of iron in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Fires involving metallic components in oxygen systems often occur, with devastating and costly results, motivating continued research to improve the safety of these devices through a better understanding of the burning phenomena. Metallic materials typically burn in the liquid phase, referred to as heterogeneous burning. A review of the literature indicates that there is a need to improve the overall understanding of heterogeneous burning and better understand the factors that influence metal flammability in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Melting rates for metals burning in reduced gravity have been shown to be higher than those observed under similar conditions in normal gravity, indicating that there is a need for further insight into heterogeneous burning, especially in regard to the rate-limiting mechanism. The objective of the current research is to determine the cause of the higher melting rates observed for metals burning in reduced gravity to (a) identify the rate-limiting mechanism during heterogeneous burning and thus contribute to an improved fundamental understanding of the system, and (b) contribute to improved oxygen system fire safety for both ground-based and space-based applications. In support of the work, a 2-s duration ground-based drop tower reduced-gravity facility was commissioned and a reduced-gravity metals combustion test system was designed, constructed, commissioned and utilised. These experimental systems were used to conduct tests involving burning 3.2-mm diameter cylindrical iron rods in high-pressure oxygen in normal gravity and reduced gravity. Experimental results demonstrate that at the onset of reduced gravity, the burning liquid droplet rapidly attains a spherical shape and engulfs the solid rod, and that this is associated with a rapid increase in the observed melting rate. This link between the geometry of the solid/liquid interface and melting rate during heterogeneous burning is of particular interest in the current research. Heat transfer analysis was performed and shows that a proportional relationship exists between the surface area of the solid/liquid interface and the observed melting rate. This is confirmed through detailed microanalysis of quenched samples that shows excellent agreement between the proportional change in interfacial surface area and the observed melting rate. Thus, it is concluded that the increased melting rates observed for metals burning in reduced gravity are due to altered interfacial geometry, which increases the contact area for heat transfer between the liquid and solid phases. This leads to the conclusion that heat transfer across the solid/liquid interface is the rate-limiting mechanism for melting and burning, limited by the interfacial surface area. This is a fundamental result that applies in normal gravity and reduced gravity and clarifies that oxygen availability, as postulated in the literature, is not rate limiting. It is also established that, except for geometric changes at the solid/liquid interface, the heterogeneous burning phenomenon is the same at each gravity level. A conceptual framework for understanding and discussing the many factors that influence heterogeneous burning is proposed, which is relevant to the study of burning metals and to oxygen system fire safety in both normal-gravity and reduced-gravity applications.