Solidification Furnace Developed for Sounding Rockets: Rio Verde Mission

ABSTRACT Brazil has a Microgravity Program mainly based on experiments using sounding rockets. Up to now, four missions have been carried out with approximately 35 experiments submitted in total. In all flights, the Associate Laboratory of Sensors and Materials of the Brazilian Space Research Institute (LABAS/INPE) participated with a fast solidification furnace, capable of producing temperatures up to 900 °C, which was tested with semiconductor and metal alloys. This paper describes the construction and the performance of that furnace during the last parabolic flight, Rio Verde Mission, occurred in 2016. The solidification furnace is now qualified and ready to be used by other institutions in sounding rocket flights.