The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The ESA-led GRADECET project (Gravity Dependence of Columnar to equiaxed transition in peritectic TiAl alloys) involves researchers from Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, France and Hungary. Data for the GRADECET model are being gathered by solidifying TiAl across a spectrum of gravity levels. Gravity drives convection flows in the molten metal that influence the solidification process; change the level of gravity and the microscopic grain size of the alloy should change too. A quartet of casting furnaces will be flown on an ESA Maxus suborbital rocket in 2015. A previous furnace design flew on Maxus-8 in 2010, seen here with four cylindrical furnaces.