About the PSI Users Group

The Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) Users Group is a recurring Webex forum that brings together researchers, open-science practitioners, and collaborators from across the physical sciences community. Designed to foster collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and data-driven discovery, each meeting provides participants with a platform to directly engage with leading researchers and PIs. Each month, a guest speaker is invited to present their physical sciences research, highlighting the experimental methods, findings, and the resulting datasets-all of which are accessible through the PSI database for further exploration. Through the featured presentations, the Users Group encourages interactive discussion, questions and networking, helping to build a engaged community dedicated to advancing open scientific research through use of NASA’s PSI.

Reach out to PSI to learn more or request to be added to the mailing list, psi-join@lists.nasa.gov.

February Spotlight

Plant Water Management (PWM) 5 & 6 experiments, led by PI Mark Weislogel, co-founder of IRPI LLC, were conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and demonstrated recirculating hydroponic and ebb-and-flow watering techniques in microgravity. The experiments systemically evaluated bubble behavior, gas-liquid phase separation and nutrient delivery across varied flow configurations and root analog densities.

The resulting data from PWM was recently published in the PSI database (PSI-187) and provides a comprehensive record of microgravity two-phase fluid dynamics in plant systems.

Results from this research can lead to technical risk reduction for future bioregenerative life support architectures and potentially strengthen NASA’s ability to develop reliable, scalable crop production systems for sustained lunar and Mars exploration.

During the February 19th Users Group, Dr. Weislogel presented his findings, highlighted potential research impacts and provided a walk-through of the PWM dataset in PSI. Given the relevance of these experiments to the biological sciences community, the invitation for this meeting was extended to the Biological and Physical Science’s (BPS) OSDR members, resulting in significant participation, productive cross-disciplinary discussions and connections.

Watch the recording from the February Users Group.

Upcoming Meetings

• Thursday, March 26 – 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Prof. Tanvir Farouk/University of South Carolina
  • Topic: Effect of External Thermo-Convective Perturbation on Cool Flame Dynamics: A Multidimensional Multi-Physics CFD Analysis 
  • Summary: PSI-awarded research used microgravity combustion data from the FLEX investigation to validate and inform simulations of low-temperature combustion processes that are difficult to isolate under Earth’s buoyancy-driven convection.
  • At the scheduled time, join the Webex here.
• Thursday, April 30 – 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Prof. Amir Riaz / University of Maryland
  • Topic: Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Mechanisms in Low Gravity: Numerical Experiments of MABE and NPBX Data
  • Summary: PSI-awarded research which used numerical simulations to analyze pool boiling heat transfer under microgravity conditions using experimental data from the 2011 MABE and NPBX experiments.
  • At the scheduled time, join the Webex here.
• Thursday, June 4 – 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Dr. Rick Weber & Dr. Stephen Wilke / Materials Development Inc. (MDI)
  • Topic: The Origin of Fragility in High-Temperature Oxide Liquids – Toward Fabrication of Novel Non-Equilibrium Oxides (ELF-6 PRONTO)
  • Summary: Microgravity research which used containerless processing to measure the thermophysical properties of molten metal oxides, revealing how liquid fragility, atomic structure, and glass-forming behavior are correlated in high-temperature oxide systems.
  • At the scheduled time, join the Webex here.
• Thursday, July 26 – 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Prof. Anand Oza / New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • Topic: Phase Transitions in Colloid-Polymer Mixtures in Microgravity
  • Additional details coming soon.