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World's Lightest Solid

Posted by timothy on from the hull-foam dept.

Erazmus writes: "NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has manufactured the world's lightest solid. At only 3 milligrams per cubic centimeter, it's close to the density of air (1.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter). Spaceflight Now has the article. The article points to JPL's site, along with some amazing pictures."

2 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. good recipe: by b_pretender · · Score: 5, Interesting
    quote: "It's probably not possible to make aerogel any lighter than this because then it wouldn't gel""

    That's just a challenge to the Materials Science Engineers. Maybe that can make He-gel or H2-gel and get the *solid* material to be lighter than air... at least until gas-diffusion takes over and replaces all of the H2/He with O2. A thin membrane around the outside might even prevent this from happening! I can't wait for (air)floating surfboards and cloud-cities.

    take a look at the aerogel photogallery.

  2. Lighter-than-air idea by crow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What if you made a hollow sphere of aerogel? How large could you make it and still be structurally sound while containing a vacuum? Or perhaps fill it with Helium? Either way, you could make blocks that are lighter than air.

    The engineering possibilities...