Stray-field nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in microgravity conditions

Magnetic levitation has been proposed as an alternative approach to simulate on Earth microgravity conditions encountered in space, allowing the investigation of weightlessness on materials and biological systems. In general, very strong magnetic fields, 15 T or higher, are required to achieve levitation for a majority of diamagnetic substances. Here, we show that it is possible to achieve levitation of these substances in a commercial superconductive magnet operating with a nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometer at 9.4 T at ambient conditions. Furthermore, stray-field proton NMR imaging is performed in situ at the location where a sample is levitating, showing that it is feasible to obtain the corresponding one-dimensional profile. Considering that water is a diamagnetic substance and the main constituent of living systems, the outlined approach could be useful to investigate alterations in water proton NMR properties induced by low gravity and magnetic forces upon levitating, e.g., seeds, cells, etc. In addition to protons, it would also be possible to observe other nuclei e.g., F, P, etc. that may be of interest in metabolic and therapeutic investigations. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2842406