Paper Number
SL5                         My Program 

Session
Space Applications and Low-Gravity Research (invited symposium)

Title
Rheology on Rockets

Presentation Date and Time
October 14, 2024 (Monday) 11:10

Track / Room
Track 3 / Waterloo 5

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Alvarez, Laura (University of Bordeaux)
  2. Voigtmann, Thomas (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V., Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Laura Alvarez1 and Thomas Voigtmann2
1University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; 2Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V., Köln 51170, Germany

Speaker / Presenter 
Voigtmann, Thomas

Keywords
experimental methods; biological systems; colloids; future of rheology; low gravity research

Text of Abstract
Sounding rockets offer a "sweet spot" in microgravity research, providing reasonable time in weightlessness (around six minutes) while still enabling fast, non-bureaucratic, and cost-effective realization of experiments. I will present exemplary results from our own sounding-rocket program MAPHEUS, related to soft and active matter and the fluidity of membranes. Recent experiments using fluorescence-polarization detection suggest that in the absence of gravity, the fluidity of giant unilamellar vesicles decreases. If confirmed, this potentially affects the way drugs should be administered during space-flight missions.