SMEOCEAN Decryption: How China's Space Station's "Space Alchemy Furnace" Uses Black Technology to Reshape the Future of Aerospace Materials.

（Reprinted from: People's Daily）

Lord Lao alchemy furnace is no myth. Aboard the Chinese space station, approximately 400 kilometers above Earth, a real-life version of this "alchemy furnace" has successfully heated a tungsten alloy to over 3,100°C, setting a new world record.

This "space alchemy furnace," hidden within the Chinese space station, is actually a containerless materials laboratory located within the Tianhe core module. For the past four years, it has been busy for “alchemy”. However, it isn't producing elixirs of immortality, but rather "heat-resistant" materials like tungsten alloys and niobium alloys that can withstand the intense flames of rocket engines, as well as some new materials. 

What are the two key technologies hidden within this "space alchemy furnace"?

Now, this "space alchemy furnace" has successfully heated a tungsten alloy to over 3,000°C, nearly half the temperature of the sun's surface. This hard-core skill, which is comparable to a myth, hides the breakthrough of two key technologies.

The first step is to use the "levitation technique" to make the materials obedient. On the ground, molten metal liquid becomes very naughty under the influence of gravity. They will either stick to the container like syrup, or be pulled apart by gravity. Metals of different densities will separate into layers like oil and water, and it will be impossible to form a uniform alloy. 

But in the microgravity environment of space, the liquid metal instantly becomes obedient, and the surface tension squeezes it into round "Divine Pill". The experimental cabinet then uses the force generated by the electrostatic field to hold the metal firmly and suspend it in mid-air. At this time, it is completely out of contact with the container, neither contaminated by impurities nor disturbed, truly realizing "container-free".

The second is the "Samadhi True Fire" for heating metal, which is actually the dual-wavelength laser system of the experimental cabinet. The semiconductor laser "violently attacks" the metal surface, and the carbon dioxide laser is responsible for "penetrating" and heating the interior. Combined with the 300-watt high-power output, even "stubborn molecules" such as tungsten alloy with an extremely high melting point cannot withstand the combined force of the two lasers and are burned into liquid balls. 

What "hardcore data" can be captured by combining "levitation" with "Samadhi True Fire"?。

The sophisticated combination of "levitation" and "Samadhi True Fire" can help scientists understand the true nature of extremely heat-resistant materials at ultra-high temperatures: for example, how tungsten alloy flows after melting and how it crystallizes when cooling. This "hardcore data," never captured by ground-based experiments, is paving the way for the design of new heat-resistant materials in my country. 

In the future, they may become the "armor" of spacecraft, able to withstand the raging flames when passing through the atmosphere; they may also become the "heart" of rocket engines, maintaining stable operation under extremely high temperatures. Every "golden elixir" refined in the space furnace means that mankind's dream of sailing to the sea of stars has come one step closer.