FOCUS: Foam evolution and stability in microgravity

Abstract Foam Casting and Utilization in Space (FOCUS, Project ID: SURE AO-019) is an industrial materials science experiment to create foams containing particles in microgravity using a special foam generator (FG). Scientific objective is to optimize the foaming parameters in order to achieve homogeneous bubble size independently of gravity and the direction of foaming. FOCUS Experiment was executed on board of the ISS (International Space Station) on the 7th February 2010. Using an aqueous suspension of SiO 2 nanoparticles at 2 wt% containing 0.05 wt% SDS, foams were created in three foaming cartridges (FC) with three different flow rates. Foam volumes and the average bubble sizes were compared to the terrestrial reference experiments at various foaming directions measured to gravity vector.