Questions tagged [materials]
Questions pertaining to materials used for construction of space-worthy objects.
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How often is duct tape used during crewed space missions?
It seems Apollo missions carried some variety of gray tape, likely Duct Tape or similar. There's the scene in the movie Apollo 13 and the reality behind it discussed in the video below.
Question: How ...
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What exactly makes a bolt "aerospace grade"?
I'm reading various articles on Tesla S electric car and many of them (one example) say that the car body is very strong because of using aerospace grade bolts. What are those I wonder? I found this ...
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How is unwanted cold welding prevented in space?
Metallic surfaces touching in the vacuum can stick to each other and fuse. This is known as the "cold welding" and it seems to be a possible issue in space if it happens where it should not. ...
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What technological barriers do we need to overcome to build a space elevator?
The concept of a space elevator unfortunately still seems like one confined to fiction, at least for now. However, I've heard some sources claim that carbon nanotubes could be the first material ...
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Why is tantalum being used for the Hayabusa bullets?
The Hayabusa 2 probe is firing tantalum bullets at the asteroid Ryugu to knock off material that can be sampled. Why was tantalum chosen? That’s a pretty obscure element and I would assume rather rare....
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How realistic is the 1 kg/km² solar sail in "Death's End"?
(This question has been migrated from the SciFi StackExchange.)
From Cixin Liu's 2010 sci-fi novel Death's End (pages 68–69):
"A radiation sail can be made very thin and light. Based on the ...
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What materials provide the best protection from cosmic radiation?
For long-distance manned missions, such as a mission to Mars, we are inevitably going to have to shield astronauts from cosmic radiation, especially in the event of a solar flare or SEP. What ...
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How does steel deteriorate in translunar space?
To confirm the identity of a 1966 Centaur booster returning near earth in 2020, NASA took some spectroscopy observations. They didn't match those of the same metal (301 stainless steel) on earth, ...
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What makes aluminum aerospace grade?
So what is aerospace grade aluminum? Aerospace grade and regular aluminum are both aluminum. Do they have a different composition or strength? What makes one aerospace grade and the other one not?
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Why aren't the ISS's nor Space Shuttle's radiators black?
As we know, from a surprising corollary to Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, just as darker* objects absorb more light (and therefore energy), darker objects also radiate more light (at lower ...
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Why not build rockets out of composite materials?
Considering how important mass ratio is for the rocket equation, why are rockets built still out of aluminium, and not some lighter material, perhaps carbon/glass fiber composites?
I'm aware ...
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Could a spacecraft be made out of lunar materials?
Would it be possible to construct a working spacecraft using only materials extracted from the lunar surface? If not, what materials would we have to be ferried from Earth for this purpose?
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Is the technology behind the Shuttle's heat-shielding tiles used in any product today?
Many NASA inventions have had subsequent lives in the commercial marketplace. Have the Space Shuttle's heat-shielding tiles also had a second life?
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What materials are the windows on the US Segment of the ISS made out of?
Presumably the various windows on the different modules of the ISS are consistent on the different segments of the ISS.
What are the windows on the US Segment made out of? Do they have special ...
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What is the base of a launchpad made of?
I'm curious as to what launchpad bases are made of - it seems to always be made of concrete, but wouldn't the concrete disintegrate rather quickly with jets of fire pounding on it?
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Can materials be found to make plastic on Mars?
Does Mars contain the materials required to make plastic? If not, can they relatively easily be made, or an adequate substitute found?
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What are the considerations for smelting iron and aluminum in space?
Iron and aluminum are the two most common metals in the Earth's crust. While we can't know for sure what we'll find for raw resources when we start building factories in space, if we assume that iron ...
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JWST observing cherry red Tesla roadster
Assuming both launches are successful, if JWST tries to solve Tesla's cherry red body paint light spectrum, what would it tell about it's composition? Could it be confusing if it was an unknown object?...
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What are the long term effects of Space Weathering on man-made materials?
Space Weathering is described as the type of weathering that occurs to any object exposed to the harsh environment of outer space. Unlike on Earth, a man-made vessel wouldn't be affected by rain or ...
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What improvements have SpaceX made to their proprietary Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA-X) heat shield?
PICA-X is a SpaceX proprietary variant on the NASA Ames developed PICA (Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator) heat shield material. NASA quotes decades of rigorous research, testing and development ...
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How long is it feasible to store cryogenic fuels?
Working with liquid nitrogen all day, I am constantly bothered by their boiling away, forcing me to go get more from the storage dewar. Likewise should be the case with any cryogen, e.g. LH2 and LOX ...
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Would a duct tape spacesuit be practical?
Spoilers ahead for season 2 of For All Mankind.
Essentially duct tape wrapped around the body, over clothing which looks like standard NASA jumpsuits for pressurized environments onboard spacecraft. ...
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Between a space elevator on Mars versus the Moon, which would have lower material strength requirement?
On one hand, the Moon has lower gravity, and the gravity from Earth also reduces the distance the it has to span. This is particularly true for EML-1, and a little less so for EML-2. I don't know if ...
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What is the cause of discoloration along the edges of the Quest Joint Airlock thermal cover?
I've noticed this discoloration / stains / burn marks along the edges of the Quest Joint Airlock thermal cover on the hatch before, but they seem even more pronounced and contrasting with the cover's ...
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Why does the material for space elevators have to be really strong?
If the space elevator platform (The very top) is orbiting a planet in a geosynchronous orbit, wouldn't the forces on the elevator "rope" be minimal?
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Does Mars contain materials that could be used to build a space colony?
If a manned mission to mars was made with the hope of colonization, we would probably need to make many of our structures there out of materials found there - they would probably be simply too heavy ...
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Why has SpaceX changed Starship from carbon fiber composite to stainless steel?
Recently, there was news that SpaceX changed the material used for the BFS/Starship (upper stage of the BFR) from initially planned carbon fiber to metal which seems quite counter-intuitive as carbon ...
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What are the windows on the Russian segement of the ISS made of?
Presumably the various windows on the different modules of the ISS are consistent on the different segments of the ISS.
What are the windows on the Russian Segment made out of? Do they have special ...
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What material properties would be necessary to shield a lander from the environment of the Venusian surface?
On March 1, 1982, the Venera 13 lander survived for 127 minutes in an environment with a temperature of 457 °C (855 °F) and a pressure of 89 Earth atmospheres (9.0 MPa). This says nothing of the ...
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What is the SpaceX barge topped with?
For having a Falcon 9 (almost) land on it, the SpaceX barge doesn't seem to have faired too badly:
Click for full version
In June 2015 the first model barge was replaced, and here is an image of the ...
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Why isn't stainless steel used for rocket engines?
Most people have probably heard by now that Elon is changing Starship to a complete stainless steel build. Anyways, it got me thinking, why isn't stainless steel ever used for rocket engines (nozzle, ...
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Were any toxic metals used in the International Space Station?
Have any of the following metals been used in the ISS?
Lead: used in some batteries, and in many types of solder.
Mercury: used in some batteries, and in tilt switches (which I would expect have no ...
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What mitigation procedures are in place in space systems to prevent whisker growth?
It has been found (from missions like the Long Duration Exposure Facility, LDEF) that some metals, especially tin and cadmium in solders, used in space-electronics assemblies, form crystal whiskers ...
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Where could we build a space elevator today (2014)?
A space elevator is an interesting concept, allowing for very low cost transit to orbit. Currently we don't seem to have a technology that will provide a strong enough cable to make the climb from ...
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What exactly is the orange insulation foam used on many different launch vehicle stages?
What exactly is that orange/rust coloured insulation foam on the Space Shuttle external tank, the H-IIA/B, Delta-IV, and so many other launch vehicles? I remember finding the name of it in a NASA ...
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What are the moving particles that can be seen by the Parker Solar Probe?
There ate two images below from the Parker Probe, one of Venus and the second from the Sun. The second one is a screenshot from a recent video (Youtube of Parker imagery while in solar corona).
In ...
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Can you print 3D with iron in space?
A couple of recent questions; How is the unwanted cold welding prevented in space? & Would unpainted iron or steel rust in space? indicate that some pure metals like iron that have been forged in ...
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What cryogenic selective surface materials have high Technology Readiness Level?
NIAC ("NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts") has approved the following research application for 2015 funding:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/cryogenic-selective-surfaces
Cryogenic Selective ...
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Could sheets of stacked graphene be used as part of a heat shield, since its melting point is 3000k to 5000 K
Since graphene material is the strongest manmade material, with "magical" properties, I wonder if it could be considered for use as a heat shield, since its melting point is 3000 to 5000 K ...
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Ultra-lightweight material for structural components - aluminium foam?
This is (again) something from the back of my head, that I am looking for right now. I think that in 2008, I saw a presentation on foamed / expanded aluminium for structural components (1). The ...
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What is the outside of the Soyuz capsule covered in?
When you look at a Soyuz, it seems like the descent and orbital modules are covered in some kind of fabric-like material. You can see wrinkles and it does not look like traditional metal as you might ...
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How hard is the hardest ice in the solar system? Is it in Pluto's ice mountains?
NPR's Pluto Has White-Capped Mountains, But Not Because There's Snow includes the following:
"Initially, it seemed logical that this high-altitude frost could form like on the Earth," says ...
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Why did Hayabusa-2's capsule's parachute have transparent panels?
JAXA's photo of Hayabusa-2's capsule, at its landing on 2020 Dec 6, shows that its parachute canopy had some non-opaque sections. Why?
Transparency has no advantage for this mission.
Compared to ...
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Are there relevant resources on the Moon for civil engineering?
We can read about Moon exploitation and making bases on there for long-term colonies. But bringing materials to make buildings there does not makes economical sense, and a large spaceship may be a ...
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What is NASA doing to improve the supersonic parachute for the third LDSD test?
Last month, on June 8, 2015, NASA ran the second Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) flight test off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The inflatable decelerator portion of the test was successful, ...
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How much lighter could a modern, working replica of an Apollo payload and crew be at launch?
When I was young a zillion years ago I visited the Smithsonian's Air and Space museum, and admired what I think must have been a mercury capsule. Upon peering through the window, what struck me first ...
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What was mylar used for on the Apollo Command Module space craft? Why is it gold after returning from space?
I lived in Hawaii when Apollo 15 returned from the moon. I saw the crew return by helicopter from the ship to Hickham A.F.B. and when the helicopter carrier, the USS Okinawa (LPH 3), returned to ...
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What material is the wrinkled fabric(?) seen on the outside of some capsules and what is its purpose?
For example, the silver material on the Soyuz capsule
Or the white wrapping on Canadarm and other robotic modules on the ISS
My best guess is that it's beta cloth, used for fireproofing spacesuits, ...
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Do chemical engineers play a significant role in space exploration?
I am going to be beginning a degree in chemical engineering next year and also have a significant interest in space travel. I was wondering how much of a role chemical engineers play in space ...
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Maintaining ideal curvature (flatness) of a solar sail
If a solar sail is to be of any use, it needs to be a rigid structure and maintain its ideal curvature and orientation, otherwise it would eventually fold-up over its center of mass like an umbrella ...
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