 Many of the latest instruments used by doctors. The vehicles in which we travel. Even the appliances in our homes use magnets. They supply us with all sorts of power. But NASA engineers say magnets manufactured on the Earth just aren't as powerful, as lightweight, as long-lasting as they could be. The next flight of the space shuttle and this device will take us a step closer to making better magnets. This is called the Automated Directional Solidification Furnace. Simply put, it melts and cools samples of a magnetic compound in much the same way that a manufacturer does. When the same process is performed on Earth, however, gravity weakens the magnet. That problem is significantly reduced in space. The previous flight of the space furnace on this 1985 shuttle mission proved that. Now, project manager Fred Reeves with the Marshall Space Flight Center says this basic research will likely lead to applications on Earth, despite its gravity. We'll take advantage of all of the features that are being derived by processing these materials in reduced gravity and make an attempt then to bring that knowledge and understanding back into the production environment here on Earth. Reeves says that we may see some of those applications come to light in as little as five years' time. Meanwhile, the space furnace is designed to take up as little of the astronauts' time as possible. A few seconds to flip these two switches and the machine takes over from there and completes the 10-hour experiment. So we feel like that there will be benefits derived by what we learn up there and in making that application of that knowledge applicable to what we do here on Earth.