Using large electric fields to control transport in microgravity.

Transport control by large electric fields in microgravity may be subdivided according to whether the charge carriers are flame ions, ions produced by corona discharges, or electrically charged particles. Using electric fields to induce and direct convection through the drag exercised on neutral gas by ions and to manipulate dispersions and trajectories of electrically charged droplets and particles is especially effective in the absence of Earth's gravity. We have explored applications associated with each of these, and this review collects and summarizes briefly the principal findings of our research, which is scattered widely over the literature of combustion, electrostatics, and experimental science.