The «Two-Phase Systems for Space and Ground Applications» conference was held in Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk. The organizers of the event were the Y S. Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS and NSU.
The conference has been held for 12 years. This is the second time that the conference was held in Novosibirsk. Participants at the conference included Balazs Toth, a representative fr om the European Space Agency, a representative of the Japan Space Agency, Haruhiko Ohta, the leader of one of the experiments currently being performed on the ISS, Jian- Fu Zhao, a representative of the China Space Agency, as well as leading Russian scientists.
Oleg Kabov, the Head of the Laboratory for Intensification of Heat Transfer Processes at the Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS, Head of the NSU Laboratory for Energy-Intensive Thermal Processes and Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences talked about this work:
– Novosibirsk scientists are currently involved in ten space experiments, most of them are in association with the European Space Agency. It is important to emphasize that the European Space Agency space station is fully open meaning that Russian scientists have the same rights as European and international groups of researchers. An agreement was signed between the Director of the Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS and the European Space Agency that all information generated by the experiments we are participating in will be available for our use, analysis, processing and publication. The same agreement was signed in Kyoto where work is being conducted under the leadership of Professor Haruhiko Ohta.
In addition, Novosibirsk scientists plan to be included in experiments on the future Chinese space station. According to Jian-Fu Zhao, the central module will be launched in two years and two years after that, it will be possible to talk about the launch of the entire station. Experiments are planned for the station over the next 10 years. However, applications to conduct experiments are already being received and three of them include employees from the S.S. Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS.
The first experiment concerns an evaporation problem in the field of a contract line which is a small area between a solid surface and a liquid wh ere abnormally high evaporation occurs. The second experiment looks at condensation problems, i.e. the creation of steam condensers for microgravity conditions. The third is a boiling experiment in micro- and mini-channels. Applications to support these experiments have still not been accepted, are currently under consideration.
– We hope for approval and for other favorable prospects, – explained Oleg Kabov.
Andrey Piklevsky from Roskosmos was also at the conference and reported that Russia currently participates in more than 280 experiments on the ISS.