Methods for vapor diffusion in microgravity have long existed (and the 'trick' is that you cannot have 'free liquid', as we do in standard vapor diffusion plates, because it does not 'stay'). Having worked at NASA, I have said the same thing: vacuum and cooling should be easy - but alas, they are not. It is not permissible to have 'connections' with the vacuum outside (unless they are very stringently controlled and triply guaranteed) and cooling in general is a huge problem (vacuum is an excellent insulator!).
Personal crystal mounting could be fun, but you do have to take into account the number of years(!) you would need for appropriate training (and I don't mean in crystal mounting itself), the fact that you could not afford to be near your scientific experiments (training does not take place in Amsterdam), and that you would have to choose to be away from your family for extended amounts of time or alternatively would have to take your family to a training site (taking kids away from school and their friends). There are many reasons why I was never really interested in all that, but astronauts evidently set EVERYTHING aside for this purpose because it is their dream... Yes, robots have been prototyped. And yes, it is incredibly expensive. Putting ANYTHING in orbit is really expensive (and we do it all the time) so all you have to decide is which experiment(s) (if any) are important enough or rather more important than other experiments. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Anastassis Perrakis <a.perra...@nki.nl> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Mon, May 10, 2010 11:25 am Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Micro-g Crystal Growth and the literature I am assuming that if the diffractometer is on the space station, the X-ray source will be an no stronger than a standard in-house source. Cryoprotection might not even be necessary assuming that I guess there is room for imagination on how to utilize micro-gravity for setting up vapor or liquid diffusion crystallization experiments ... but given the cooling capacity offered by the room next door, combined with a pretty good and cheap vacuum, it could be fun to build a big rotating anode out there ... and you could save money from the cryo-cooling too, also for free. I would love to have a go mounting a crystal or two out there ... but I guess even that can be done by one of the existing robots modified. .... would still be a waste of money in terms of practical returns I bet ... one could learn things about crystallization maybe ... A. On May 10, 2010, at 17:58, SIPPEL,KATHERINE H wrote: I am assuming that if the diffractometer is on the space station, the X-ray source will be an no stronger than a standard in-house source. Cryoprotection might not even be necessary assuming that =
