tempus

Nearly 30 experiments in materials processing were conducted with nine different types of science facilities. DARA provided the TEMPUS, flying for first time on IML-2, designed to allow study of solidification of materials from liquid state in a containerless environment. Solidification phenomena are of great interest to science and also used in many industrial processes. Science teams detected for first time a phase in a nickel-niobium sample that is masked by other forces on Earth.

TEMPUS, an electromagnetic levitation facility that allows containerless processing of metallic samples in microgravity, first flew
on the IML-2 Spacelab mission. The principle of electromagnetic levitation is used commonly in ground-based experiments to
melt and then cool metallic melts below their freezing points without solidification occurring (undercooling).