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Developing New Materials With Space Science

Posted by Soulskill on from the think-outside-the-gravity-well dept.

Scientists at the European Space Agency are using techniques inspired by their experience with outer space to make new and better products here on Earth. Certain compounds and alloys which are not normally viable can be made in different ways once forces such as gravity are removed from the equation. From BBC News: "The near absence of gravity (microgravity) has a profound influence on the way molten metals come together to form intermetallics and 'standard' alloys. With no 'up' and 'down' in the space environment, a melt doesn't rise and sink as it would at the planet's surface and that means solidification can turn out very differently. 'Gravity induces a lot of segregation of the elements,' explains IMPRESS scientist Dr Guillaume Reinhart. 'For instance, tantalum and niobium are heavy atoms and in doing the solidification process on the ground, they will segregate in different places and produce a very heterogeneous material. If you do this in microgravity, you obtain a very homogenous material because you prevent separation; and you have a much more efficient material, mechanically.'"

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why use space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ignoring the deceleration problem at the bottom, with a 5 km shaft (which is not cheap to make) you only get 30 seconds of free fall to work with. And that's in a vacuum! In any shaft on earth, you are going to have air, which means you will hit terminal velocity at some point, which will ruin the effect.

    This duration of free fall is comparable to the Vomit Comet, which can produce brief periods of free fall without the ugly smashing part at the bottom of a mine shaft. :)

  2. Re:Why use space? by Hojima · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, orbiting is considered free falling, and that can obviously last much longer than a few hours. That's one of the main reasons that newbie astronauts vomit in space, because even though it looks like they experience no sensation, they actually feel like they are falling 24/7 (an extremely nauseating event).

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  3. Near absence of gravity... by the_other_chewey · · Score: 2, Informative

    TFA: The near absence of gravity (microgravity) ...

    JFTR: At 400km above ground (the ISS's orbit), the gravitational acceleration
    the Earth exerts is still about 88% of the acceleration on the ground.

    It is a very common misconception that gravity somehow instantly vanishes as you
    arrive in space. It isn't so - in fact, gravity is crucial for that weightlessness in orbit.