Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC              November 19, 1997
(Phone:  202/358-1979)

RELEASE:  97-272

NASA ANNOUNCES RESEARCH GRANTS 
IN MICROGRAVITY FLUID PHYSICS

     NASA has selected for funding 39 two-to-four year research 
proposals for microgravity fluid physics research worth 
approximately $13 million.

     Supported by NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Science 
and Applications, Washington, DC, this research offers 
investigators the opportunity to take advantage of a low-gravity 
environment to improve understanding of fundamental physical and 
chemical processes associated with fluid physics phenomena, which 
are often masked by normal gravity.  Increasing knowledge of 
fundamental fluid physics will provide the foundation for new 
technology advances and permit humans to live and work in space.

     Fluid physicists seek to better understand the physical 
principles governing fluids, including how fluids flow under the 
influence of energy, such as heat or electricity; how particles 
and gas bubbles suspended in a fluid interact with and change the 
properties of the fluid; how fluids interact with solid 
boundaries; and how fluids change phase, either from fluid to 
solid or from one fluid phase to another.

     The investigators will have NASA's microgravity research 
facilities, such as drop towers and aircraft for flying parabolic 
trajectories at their disposal as needed, with the flight 
definition investigations working toward experiments on a space-
flight testbed, such as sounding rockets, the Space Shuttle or the 
International Space Station.

     Thirty-three of the grants are for ground-based research, 
while the remaining six are flight definition efforts.  Two of 
these grants are for continuation of work currently funded by 
NASA, but the remaining 37 proposals represent new research 
efforts.  NASA reviewed 227 proposals in response to its research 
announcement.

     The list of the grant recipients is available by calling the 
NASA Headquarters Newsroom at 202/358-1600 or via the Internet at 
URL:

       ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1997/97-272a.txt

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