Macromolecular crystal growth is seen as an ideal experiment to make use of the reduced acceleration
environment provided by an orbiting spacecraft. The experiments are small, are simply operated, and have a high
potential scientific and economic impact. In this review we examine the theoretical reasons why microgravity is a
beneficial environment for crystal growth and survey the history of experiments on the Space Shuttle Orbiter, on
unmanned spacecraft, and on the Mir space station. The results of microgravity crystal growth are considerable
when one realizes that the comparisons are always between few microgravity-based experiments and a large number
of earth-based experiments. Finally, we outline the direction for optimizing the future use of orbiting platforms.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.