TOWARD NEW MATERIALS PROCESSING IN SPACE.

Under the micro-gravity condition in space there are little of thermal convection, flotation, and sedimentation, which shows a possibility of materials processing under more advantageous conditions than those on the earth. However, due to the limited experimental means there have been little of space materials processing experiments in Japan compared to those in other advanced countries. A research group is being formed rapidly in space utilization field different from space development one, in which it will be necessary for scientists to colloborate the space materials experiments with engineers who are investigating a possibility of new phenomenon toward new industry. In this paper a strategy of materials processing in space is briefly described especially from the view point of industrial utilizations.