Huge congratulations to ISEF Ph.D. students from the Technion, Mor Elgarisi and Israel Gabay, part of Prof. Moran Bercovici’s group that makes history with the second Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe
As part of a mission collaboration between Axiom Space, NASA Ames Research Center, the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, and the Ramon Foundation under the Rakia mission, Eytan used the team design and experiment construction to test the ability to manufacture optical elements IN SPACE using a technology developed in Moran’s lab called Fluidic Shaping. Eytan successfully fabricated several lenses by injecting special liquids into frames, forming liquid lenses, and polymerizing them to create solid lenses which will be sent later back to Earth.
This is an amazing step forward in our understanding and ability to use liquids for in-space manufacturing. Well done guys!