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Comments below this answer have inspired this quesiton.

Wikipedia's Ferrofluidic seal sez:

Ferrofluid-sealed feedthroughs routinely operate in environments including ultra-high vacuum (below 10⁻⁸ mbar), temperatures over 1,000 °C, tens of thousands of RPM, and multiple-atmosphere pressures.

Are ferrofluidic seals used in spaceflight? If so:

  1. What are the main applications
  2. Are they used in human-rated applications, i.e. to seal an atmosphere being breathed by humans against loss to space?
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    $\begingroup$ I know of none in shuttle, but difficult to prove a negative. $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 12:53
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    $\begingroup$ @OrganicMarble seems like all patents and scholarly articles post-date 1983. Seeing as shuttle was planned before 1981 and first launched in April 1981, I doubt that it would've been included in the design that late. Don't know how much the design evolved beyond STS-1 though. $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 15:40
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    $\begingroup$ @MagicOctopusUrn excellent point! $\endgroup$
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 15:41
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    $\begingroup$ I'm extremely interested in this @uhoh if this isn't answered I'll make my first bounty in 2 days. $\endgroup$
    – Magic Octopus Urn
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 20:47
  • $\begingroup$ The necessary permanet magnetic materials might be too heavy for spaceflight. $\endgroup$
    – Uwe
    Commented Oct 25, 2019 at 10:34

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