Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fly To Mars In A Plastic Ship

Posted by Zonk on from the wouldn't-go-any-other-way dept.

saskboy writes "NASA reports that an old polymer may be the spaceship material of the future. Polyethylene is in household garbage bags, and it is also an effective solar radiation shield. I learned three years ago in astronomy class that polyethylene is used in the sleeping quarters on current orbiting space vehicles, but now NASA has developed a way to toughen the polymer into a product they call RXF1 which is 'even stronger and lighter than aluminum'. As you may know, radiation in space is currently a major obstacle to manned missions outside of the Earth's magnetic field, so better radiation shielding is essential to planned manned missions to Mars and beyond. Get the mp3 podcast of the article here."

2 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Nature's way... by khallow · · Score: 5, Informative
    I don't think so. Metals still have a series of characteristics that aren't matched by plastics and advanced fibres. For example, steel is much harder than plastics (or the resin portion of carbon fibre), chemically compatible with concrete (another unfashionable material that isn't going away), handles compression loads well, easy to work with and machine, cheaper (IMHO), and recyclable. Things that handle significant localized forces like most screws or nuts, probably will remain metal. Weight critical applications (cars and spacecraft) will probably eliminate most uses of metals.

    But most architecture just isn't that sensitive to weight. For example, steel frame houses have significant earthquake resistance and are just more durable overall. Most bridges cover modest spans and can continue to be steel and concrete. Further one has to consider the problem of wind force. If your structure is very light for its surface area, then it'll experience increased jostling due to wind. Then you need to engineer some sort of means for stabalizing the structure, maybe guy ropes or some sort of internal computer-controlled weight that counters these motions.

  2. Re:Nasa by FleaPlus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why in Bush's name are we cutting fuding to nasa?

    Erm, where did you get that info from? Bush does many shitty things, but cutting NASA funding isn't one of them. In fact, NASA is one of the few non-defense government agencies which has actually seen funding increases. Bush even threatened to veto a huge appropriations bill unless legislators increased NASA's funding by a billion dollars.

    The official info on NASA's budget can be seen here.