Enejan Altyeva, Head of the Department of the State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan
The State Museum of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan has received an extraordinary exhibit—a unique technological installation invented by Turkmen scientists, now a part of the history of country’s technical science development. This is a mirror-beam furnace designed for zone melting of semiconductor materials in zero-gravity conditions, not just a working model but an authentic piece that has been to space.
The device was created to simulate technological processes at what is now the Institute of Solar Energy under the State Energy Institute of Turkmenistan, Ministry of Energy of Turkmenistan (transferred to the institute’s structure in 2019 from the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan), previously the “Sun” Research and Production Association. The work was supported by two Soviet, now Russian, research institutes: the Institute of Space Research (specializing in the development and production of scientific instruments for studying the Moon, planets, Sun, and distant Universe, addressing tasks in cosmic physics, astrophysics, planetary and small body physics, solar physics, solar-terrestrial connections, cosmic plasma, and nonlinear geophysics) and the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (since 2019, part of Roscosmos State Corporation, the Flight Control Center, responsible for technical support of civilian space missions, including the Russian segment of the International Space Station and the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft).
The research was held in the 1980s, when the USSR and the USA were simultaneously developing programs to utilize solar furnaces in space for producing advanced materials. The creators of the “space furnace” were Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, then Head of the High-Temperature Research Department, Doctor of Technical Sciences Nazar Korpeev, Candidate of Technical Sciences Vladimir Shokin, and technician Boris Balaukhin. In 1987, the furnace was aboard the “Mir” orbital station, used by cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Alexandrov to study melting and crystallization processes in zero-gravity conditions. The new museum exhibit was donated by Candidate of Technical Sciences Serdar Mametniyazov, representing the Aarhus Center in Turkmenistan, who has long been engaged in research on renewable energy and heliocomplex engineering, a colleague and follower of scientist N. Korpeev.
The flight was widely covered in the press, with newspapers detailing the crew’s work program. The central newspaper Iskra reported on 28 November 1987: “A series of experiments has begun, aimed at studying the specifics of melting and crystallization processes of various materials when heated by a concentrated beam of radiant energy. These studies utilize a new technological installation—a mirror-beam furnace.”
An article titled “The Song of the Chibis” by Pravda provided details on the power of the space equipment: “The mirror-beam furnace, which melted five metal samples, can be considered a model and prototype of a space solar furnace. If two halogen lamps with a total power of 250 watts produced a temperature of 1,100 degrees Celsius at the mirror’s focus, imagine what the Sun, harnessed in this way, could achieve. Of course, this would not be inside the station but in open space, where such a furnace would require neither special walls nor containers or ampoules for samples…”
The exhibit holds historical value and sparks educational interest, as it has been to space and was conceived and constructed by a group of Turkmen scientists, representing a tangible contribution of national science to the global endeavor of advancing space exploration. Soon, museum visitors will have the opportunity to see the device. Currently, it is stored in the Department of Nature and Local History and will be used for display in temporary thematic scientific exhibitions.
This one-of-a-kind space melting device has no analogs in the world. Compact in size—39.5 cm long and 30.5 cm high—it consists of a block of ellipsoidal reflectors with a “combined focus,” radiation sources, and a transparent ampoule connected to an electric drive capable of rotating at specified speeds.
Based on this invention, there was also collaboration between the Turkmen Research and Production Association and the All-Russian Institute of Aviation Materials (a State Research Center of the Russian Federation in materials science, part of the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”). The partnership focused on studying the degree of degradation of thermal protection tiles of the Russian Buran shuttle during re-entry into dense atmospheric layers, with measurements of the thermophysical properties of materials conducted using a high-temperature solar furnace at temperatures up to 2,000°C. ///Originally published by Neutral Turkmenistan Newspaper, 7 July 2025