A broad array of fundamental research is enabled by the microgravity environment whether it is in a ground-based drop tower, parabolic airplane flights, or suborbital rocket flights. Each platform has advantages and a place in a broad scientific research endeavor. The research fields that are enabled by microgravity include:
- Collisional and aggregation processes in protoplanetary disks
- Collisional evolution of planetary ring systems
- Evolution of the dusty surfaces of asteroids and small moons
- Physical evolution of comet nuclei
- Space Life Sciences
- Fundamental fluid physics
- Physics of granular media
- Validation of space hardware and space operations
- Crystal growth
- Dusty plasma physics
The University of Central Florida has expertise in several of these research areas and promotes active research programs that will be leveraged by the Center for Microgravity Research.
Flight-Based Experiments Ground-Based Experiments Previous CMR Experiments