In My Spare Time: A Weekend With A Freezer
May 30, 2012
I asked if I could use one of the research freezers for a weekend during my off-duty time.
I made thin sheets of water (sort of like a soap film without the soap), about 1 mm thick and froze them. Then I looked at the ice under polarized light using the laptop display as the light source for one direction of polarized light and a filter I just happened to have in my personal kit to make “crossed polarizers”. [Note: links to PDF]
When the ice sheets were placed between the filter and the laptop screen the crystal structure became vividly visible.
I do not know at this time if the crystal structure is any different than normal ice but I will find out.
Meanwhile, we were unloading the supplies from Dragon.
Editor's Note: You can also enjoy many of Don's Fragile Oasis blog posts on the NASA website and the Smithsonian's Air and Space website.
Other posts by this author
- A Poem for Saturday: One Planet is Not Enough
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: The Frontier
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Preparing for Departure
- A (New) Moon is Born
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Gardener's Spacesuit
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Baby on Board!
- With Warm Regards
- Stray Light
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Happy Sprout Day!
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini - What Do Dragons Eat?
May 31, 2012
Paul B.
That's awesome! I wonder how a drop/ball of water freezes in microgravity? Any pictures of that would be cool too.
May 31, 2012
Paul B.
That's awesome! I wonder how a drop or ball of water in microgravity freezes? I am going to share this with my students today.