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Fusion Science and Technology
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A year in orbit: ISS deployment tests radiation detectors for future space missions
The predawn darkness on a cool Florida night was shattered by the ignition of nine Merlin engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The thrust of the engines shook the ground miles away. From a distance, the rocket appeared to slowly rise above the horizon. For the cargo onboard, the launch was anything but gentle, as the ignition of liquid oxygen generated more than 1.5 million pounds of force. After the rocket had been out of sight for several minutes, the booster dramatically returned to Earth with several sonic booms in a captivating show of engineering designed to make space travel less expensive and more sustainable.
Simon Niemes, James Robert Braun
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | April-May 2024 | Pages 558-562
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2209087
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Accurate gas samples containing tritiated molecules are essential for the development of tritium monitoring tools and to study tritium-induced reaction dynamics. We prepared gas samples that may contain any of the six hydrogen isotopologues by manometrically mixing high-purity homonuclear isotopologues and forming the remaining isotopologues by chemical equilibration. In order to independently verify the relative isotopologue concentrations to the manometrically derived composition and thus validate the accuracy of the produced gas samples, we measured the effective speed of sound (SoS) in the gas mixtures, which are highly sensitive to small deviations in the relative molar fractions due to the large difference in the individual SoSs. We found that deviations between the manometrically derived and measured SoSs are on a 0.1% level, demonstrating the accuracy of the sample production procedure and the suitability of SoS measurements for inline composition monitoring in tritium applications.