A unique exhibit has been transferred to the State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan – a mirror-beam furnace for zone melting of semiconductor materials in zero-gravity conditions, which operated on the "Mir" orbital station in 1987. This was reported by the "Neutral Turkmenistan" newspaper.
The technological installation was created in the 1980s by Turkmen scientists at the Scientific and Production Association "Sun" (now the Institute of Solar Energy at the State Energy Institute of Turkmenistan) with the support of the Space Research Institute and the Central Scientific Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering.
The authors of the development were Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, Doctor of Technical Sciences Nazar Korpeev, Candidate of Technical Sciences Vladimir Shokin and technician Boris Balaukhin.
In 1987, the installation was used by cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Alexandrov to study the processes of melting and crystallization of substances in zero gravity. As reported by the newspaper "Pravda", the 250-watt mirror-beam furnace provided temperatures of up to 1100 degrees at the mirror focus.
The device, 39,5 cm long and 30,5 cm high, consists of a block of ellipsoid reflectors with a combined focus, radiation sources and a transparent ampoule with an electric drive for rotation at specified speeds.
The exhibit was handed over by candidate of technical sciences Serdar Mametniyazov, representing the Aarhus Centre in Turkmenistan. The device is currently in the storage of the museum's Department of Nature and Local History and will be used for demonstration within the framework of temporary thematic exhibitions of a scientific nature.
Based on this invention, interaction was also carried out with the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials Science to study the heat-protective plates of the Russian shuttle "Buran".
