PayloadMission concluded
Fluids Experiment Apparatus
Reconfigurable crew-operated microgravity laboratory
The Fluids Experiment Apparatus was a reusable, locker-size chemistry and physics laboratory developed by Rockwell International for crew-tended Space Shuttle research. Its reconfigurable chamber could heat, cool, mix, stir, centrifuge, image, and instrument solid, liquid, or gaseous samples. After an early student-experiment flight on STS-41-D, FEA supported semiconductor crystal work on STS-30 and STS-32 and a later liquid-encapsulated melt-zone configuration in SPACEHAB on STS-57.
Parent systems
The larger spacecraft or system this hardware belongs to.
Payload dossier
Identity and integration
- Official hardware designation and manufacturer
- Fluids Experiment Apparatus (FEA), developed and integrated by Rockwell International Space Transportation Systems Division
- Crew-compartment integration
- Installed in place of a standard Shuttle middeck stowage locker and operated by a flight crewmember
- STS-30 sample configuration
- Three indium and two selenium rods, each 1 centimeter in diameter and 19 centimeters long, processed by a translating annular heater
- Reconfiguration and subsystem options
- Could be reconfigured in orbit with custom furnaces, ovens, sample containers, low-temperature air heaters, a specimen centrifuge, and experiment-specific instrumentation
- Final documented Shuttle configuration
- STS-57 used FEA hardware for the Liquid Encapsulated Melt Zone experiment inside the SPACEHAB laboratory
Research configuration
- Laboratory function and experiment range
- Modular zero-gravity chemistry and physics laboratory for liquid chemistry, crystal growth, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and cell-culture investigations
- Interior laboratory dimensions
- Approximately 18.6 by 14.5 by 7.4 inches
- Experiment-hardware mass capacity
- Approximately 40 pounds of experiment-unique hardware and subsystems in the STS-32 reference configuration
- Instrument and imaging accommodation
- Supported temperature, pressure, and viscosity instrumentation plus video or Super-8 film recording of sample behavior
Resources and accommodations
- Electrical-power accommodation
- Up to 100 watts of 120-volt, 400-hertz power for installed experiments
- Control and data interface
- A portable computer could control the experiment while displaying and recording heater, position, timing, and temperature data
Dimensions and construction
- Sample-access door dimensions
- 14.1 by 10 inches, permitting multiple samples to be installed, exchanged, or removed in orbit
Flight operations and results
- First documented flight operation
- STS-41-D carried FEA as a student experiment before the NASA-Rockwell joint-endeavor crystal-growth flights
- Joint-endeavor mission operations
- STS-30 processed indium and selenium; STS-32 used the apparatus for indium crystal growth and the Microgravity Disturbance Experiment
Additional specifications
- Sample-processing capability
- Could heat, cool, mix, stir, or centrifuge gaseous, liquid, and solid samples in containers or a semicontainerless floating-zone mode
- Floating-zone performance method
- The annular heater translated along a sample to melt a short zone and resolidify it behind a seed crystal, enabling crystal growth and impurity segregation without a supporting crucible
Supported mission records
Missions that carried, used, tested, serviced, or depended on this hardware.
STS-41-DDiscovery's maiden flight and three-satellite deployment missionAugust 30, 1984-September 5, 1984STS-30Magellan begins the first Shuttle-launched planetary missionMay 4, 1989-May 8, 1989STS-32Leasat 5 deployment and recovery of LDEF after nearly six yearsJanuary 9, 1990-January 20, 1990STS-57First SPACEHAB flight and retrieval of ESA's EURECA platformJune 21, 1993-July 1, 1993
Photo Archive
Documented views of this individual vehicle, with source and credit retained alongside each image.