Materials of the future. What can we create in space?

When it comes to living in space, the materials we use to keep us sheltered will differ significantly from what we use when building here on Earth. Due to the harsh environment of space, there are many limitations. However, these limitations challenge us to be creative and come up with entirely new materials whose appearance on our home planet would be impossible.

In fact, we are already using these emerging opportunities. For example, in late May NASA installed a small square device known as the Cold Atom Laboratory onboard the International Space Station.

It is now orbiting Earth and producing clouds of ultracold atoms called Bose-Einstein condensates. These “BECs” reach temperatures just above absolute zero, the point at which atoms should theoretically stop moving entirely. This is the first time that BECs have ever been produced while in orbit.

The reason for NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory is to enable scientists to create the right conditions in orbit for ultra-cold atoms so that they can observe and examine their quantum properties.

However, NASA is not the only one. A start-up company called Made in Space has launched a new material and process that will allow 3D printed objects to last much longer in the harsh environment of space.

Here on Earth, almost every product we use has a best before date because it’s important to know when a product is safe to use and when it’s time to upgrade or throw it away. So what about materials used for spacecraft?

When it comes to the materials used for a spacecraft, it’s more than crucial for scientists to know exactly how long that material will last in outer space. To understand the effects of space on different materials Kim de Groh, a senior materials research engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, collects data from the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) missions.

One great discovery was that Graphene сould be the best material for building in Space.

In a sequence of exhilarating experiments, Cambridge researchers were able to experience weightlessness while testing graphene’s application in space. Working in conjunction with the Graphene Flagship and the European Space Agency, researchers from the Cambridge Graphene Centre got to test graphene in microgravity conditions for the first time.

The tests were aimed explicitly at Testing graphene’s potential in cooling systems for satellites, and the researchers were able to experience weightlessness inside a parabolic flight.

All these are significant developments for Asgardia, who at the initial stages, plan to create space arcs on Earth’s orbits where humans can reside permanently. And in the future, Moon settlements. If you’ve ever dreamed of living in space, then help Asgardia turn that dream into a reality by joining Asgardia today.

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