In Space Soldering Investigation

The primary objective is to better understand the quality of solders in a microgravity environment. In microgravity, gas bubbles, or void spaces are found in the solder joint and at contact surfaces. These voids reduce the thermal and electrical conductivity and also provide sites for crack initiation. Bubbles have less chance to escape in the reduced gravity environment of space. Hence, by designing a systematic series of simple experiments, the objective was to investigate and better understand porosity development, surface wetting, and equilibrium shape formation while soldering in a reduced gravity environment.