To the Moon, and to space in general, you have to travel light. Every extra kilogram represents a huge cost of fuel. Therefore, the ideal is to obtain as many resources as possible directly at the destination. moon dustknown as regolith, can be a good source of metals for construction and oxygen for fuel and life support. However, to obtain all these materials the rock would have to be melted.
The result is something similar to lava, which corrodes much of what is in its path. The process cannot be carried out inside any container or oven; but, luckily, a team of NASA scientists has found the ideal material for encapsulate the molten rock.
6 months of testing. The discoverers of this new material They spent 6 months investigating candidate substances to obtain a material that resists the corrosion of molten lunar dust. After that time, they found something interesting. By mixing scandium oxide with moon dust and heating the mixture red hot, a new material was obtained. They compared it to a list of more than a million materials analyzed by X-rays and the composition did not match any of them. It was totally new and, as they saw later, its properties were ideal.
Property analysis. Since they were dealing with a new substance, these scientists decided to analyze its chemical properties from scratch. Thus, you can see not only its advantages, but ways to optimize them even further. Once this analysis was completed, they proceeded to make a mixture of eight basic oxide components, including scandium, with lunar regolith. The reaction was started by subjecting the mixture to 1,593ºC. The initial mixture is a pink powder that changes to beige when the reaction is complete, so it is very intuitive.
All advantages. The material obtained by heating the regolith and oxides is ideal for manufacturing the containers in which the extraction of metals and oxygen from the lunar rock is carried out. It has been proven to have great resistance to corrosion, but at the same time great thermal stability. Therefore, that type of lava would not cause damage. On the other hand, it is true that scandium is expensive, but not as expensive as platinum that is normally used for this type of purpose. It would be ideal in future lunar colonizations.
Other applications. This type of materials can also have applications in aerospace engineering. For example, it can be used to make coatings for jet engines, as it is also a lighter, less dense and better insulating material than the coatings normally used. These engines reach very high temperatures, so it is important to coat them to prevent them from overheating or burning other parts of the aircraft.
SpaceX, for example, has used shielding in each of the Starship engines in previous versions. In version 3 the external piping system has been optimized and a thermal protection system has been inserted into the motors themselves. Be that as it may, it is clear that these types of coatings are essential. Having a material with so many advantages would also be very useful in this area.
Image | POT
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