You are not logged in.
The forum appears not to already have a topic for Materials Science.
No doubt there's been plenty of discussion of materials and their proper (or improper) application in other topics.
I'd like to launch this new topic with a paraphrase from an interview I heard today.
The speaker is a professor of structural engineering from a University whose name I recognized but have already forgotten.
The interview was generally about problems with design of structures on Earth that aren't holding up as the climate changes.
Among a number of suggestions this gent offered was this one:
(again, paraphrasing) ... Iron must be outlawed for use as rebar.
The suggested alternatives are aluminum and copper which are (of course) more expensive.
The interview covered a wide range, and the question of rebar came up in the context of modern buildings that last for just a few years, compared to Roman buildings that are still standing after 2000 years.
I'm hoping this new topic is of interest to our resident engineers and chemists.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … 0c8240d278
Meet the toughest material on Earth
Story by Gadget • 4h ago
1 CommentScientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal ductile – which means highly malleable (in materials science) – and strong (resisting permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder.
The team, led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, published a study describing their record-breaking findings in Science on 2 December 2022. “When you design structural materials, you want them to be strong but also ductile and resistant to fracture,” said project co-lead Easo George, the governor’s chair for Advanced Alloy Theory and Development at ORNL and the University of Tennessee.
“Typically, it’s a compromise between these properties. But this material is both, and instead of becoming brittle at low temperatures, it gets tougher.”
CrCoNi is a subset of a class of metals called high entropy alloys (HEAs). All the alloys in use today contain a high proportion of one element with lower amounts of additional elements added, but HEAs are made of an equal mix of each constituent element. These balanced atomic recipes appear to bestow some of these materials with an extraordinarily high combination of strength and ductility when stressed, which together make up what is termed “toughness.” HEAs have been a hot area of research since they were first developed about 20 years ago, but the technology required to push the materials to their limits in extreme tests was not available until recently.
Continue reading << article continues at the site
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
Post #2 describes a material that gets stonger with cold ....
That is a desirable attribute for space applications.
However, a material that gets stronger with heat would be ** really ** useful in many space related applications.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
This post is about the variety of materials used by NASA to provide the Space Shuttle with thermal protection...
Google came up with these snippets ...
Silica fibers
Most of the tiles are made of silica fibers, which are produced from high-grade sand. Silica is an excellent insulator because it transports heat slowly. When the outer portion of a tile gets hot, the heat takes a long time to work its way down through the rest of the tile to the shuttle’s skin.Shuttle Tiles | Air & Space Magazine| Smithsonian Magazine
www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/shuttle-tiles-12580671/
www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/shuttle-tiles-12580671/Was this helpful?
People also ask
What are shuttle tiles?
What were the silica tiles on the Space Shuttle made of?
What materials are used to make space shuttles?
What are the black tiles on the Space Shuttle?
Feedback
Space Shuttle Tiles | NASAhttps://www.nasa.gov/.../space-shuttle-tiles
Jul 18, 2016 · Shuttle tiles! Each shuttle has more than 21,000 lightweight tiles that are very effective at throwing off intense heat very, very quickly. You or …Author: Maria Werries
Publish Year: 2016
EXPLORE FURTHER
Global web icon
Is it legal to own space shuttle thermal tiles? - collectSPACE.…
collectspace.comGlobal web icon
In search of the Space Shuttle thermal tile database
shuttletiles.space
Global web icon
collectSPACE - "Locating space shuttle tiles by number"
collectspace.comGlobal web icon
Exclusive Limited Edition Columbia Space Shuttle Thermal Tile
thespacestore.com
Global web icon
Buran Space Shuttle 2.03 Thermal Tile
thespacecollective.comShuttle Tiles | Air & Space Magazine| Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-spac … s-12580671
May 1, 2006 · Though both flights ultimately went smoothly, the tiles have become the shuttle’s most famous components. Each shuttle is covered by more than 24,000 of the six- by six-inch …Author: Damond Benningfield
Space Shuttle thermal protection system - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shu … ion_systemOverviewMaterialsPurposeDetailed descriptionEarly TPS problemsColumbia accident and aftermathTile donationsSee also
The TPS covered essentially the entire orbiter surface, and consisted of seven different materials in varying locations based on amount of required heat protection:
• Reinforced carbon–carbon (RCC), used in the nose cap, the chin area between the nose cap and nose landing gear doors, the arrowhead aft of the nose landi…Wikipedia · Text under CC-BY-SA license
Estimated Reading Time: 9 mins
NASA - Superhero Ceramics!https://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/s … tel_f.html
NASA initially used Nextel in Space Shuttle development. When engineers needed materials for Shuttle tiles that could stand up to the heat of reentry, they turned to the versatile ceramic. Later, the fibers were used to fill gaps between orbiter …The Shuttle’s Thermal Protection System (TPS) - NASA
https://www.history.nasa.gov/sts1/pages/tps.html
This work had begun during the late 1950s, and by December 1960, Lockheed had applied for a patent for a reusable insulation material made of ceramic fibers. The first use for the material …Space Shuttle Ceramic Tiles - University of Washington
https://depts.washington.edu/matseed/mse_resources...
Every time the orbiter enters the atmosphere it loses several of these tiles, but as long as they don’t all come off in one spot the orbiter will be okay. These tiles are made of ceramic materials and must be able to withstand a temperature of …Hey NASA, Where Are the Records for Thousands of …
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hey-nasa...
Jul 8, 2015 · When the shuttle still flew, each tile was responsible for protecting a fraction of it from the dangerous ravages of atmospheric heat. NASA, in turn, was in charge of keeping track of the tiles.What were the space shuttle tiles made of? – ShortInformer
https://short-informer.com/what-were-th … es-made-of
Nov 3, 2019 · What kind of tiles are used in space shuttles? The tiles used were based on work carried out by the Lockheed Missiles & Space Company who had a patent disclosure which …Why did the Space Shuttle have uniquely shaped tiles …
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Space-Shuttle...
The ceramic consisted of silica fibers bound together and sintered with other silica fibers, and then glaze-coated by a reaction-cured glass consisting of silica, boron oxide, and silicon …Who made the space shuttle tiles? – WittyQuestion.com
https://witty-question.com/who-made-the … ttle-tilesWhat were the space shuttle tiles made from? They are made up of what is called a porous silicon material that is very light and extremely heat resistant. There are two main types of tiles, one a …
Related searches for how were space shuttle tiles made
space shuttle tiles for sale
shuttle tile material
space shuttle tile adhesive
buy space shuttle thermal tiles
More related searches
Related searches for how were space shuttle tiles made
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
This material science w done as a result of find what would work for the higher temperatures and duration which could not be taken with the apollo or pica products and would be reusable in thought process.
Offline
Like button can go here
In post 4 the quoted claim that silica resists heat flow is misleading, to be charitable about it. Stone is less heat-conductive than metal, but it is a conductor, not an insulator. Period.
What made shuttle tile an insulator was not the silica fibers, but the void spaces between them. Each tile as made was over 90% void space by volume. It's all in how you make it, not what you make it with.
I made a similar but stronger low-density ceramic insulator way back in 1985. I used a trowel-on alumino-silicate-based pipe insulation paste and an alumino-silicate based ceramic fire curtain cloth. The paste was a water-based slurry that normally "cures" by losing the water over time, with a bit of applied warmth. I cured it instead in an oven at about 102 C, causing the water to flash into steam, and driving it out faster with the heat. The steam wormholing-out of the paste created a lot of void spaces. The embedded woven cloth gave it a lot more strength than what NASA made without the fiber reinforcement. It was still vulnerable to crushing, though. To the touch, it felt about like industrial-grade styrofoam.
I used it all the way to its 3250-3300 F meltpoint, because the shrinkage cracks upon cooldown did not affect my application as a cylindrical combustor liner. To avoid shrinkage cracking, you must stay under the solid phase change limit of 2250-2300 F. That is true of all alumino-silicate materials, not just the ones I used. I used a water-based ceramic cement as a surface paint, cured in that same oven, to cover up the porosity at the surface, so my combustor gas flow would not percolate through the insulating liner I had made.
There's no magic there. Never was, never will be.
If different ceramic materials could be made into water-based pastes, cements, and woven cloth, the same processing would apply, and the same porous insulator obtained. If the alternate materials did not risk shrinkage cracking on cooldown, then you could operate closer to the meltpoint. None were commercially available then. I think that is still true now.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
Offline
Like button can go here
What kind of materials are you talking about? I mentioned in another thread that I posted ideas on the original Mars Society forum in 1999, then created a chapter website when that forum closed. One page is about materials. However, it's basic materials that we are all familiar with. My focus was how to make them on Mars, and how to construct habitats with them. Nothing high-tech.
Mars Society Winnipeg: Materials
Offline
Like button can go here
For RobertDyck re #7
The range of posts is limited only by the request that it have something to do with materials that exist in the Real Universe, or which might exist if they are possible.
Thank you for your post, and for the reminder of your earlier work.
Because of the limitations of FluxBB software, we only have search-by-text available. We might be able to improve our ability to find things folks have entered. You can add tags to your posts if you think folks might look for them. It's a guessing game! I've often found that tags I create do not match what I remember about a post.
Thanks again for your (by now many) years of contribution to the forum.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
For GW Johnson...
Thank you for your clarification about how NASA tiles actually protected the Shuttle, as compared to what a writer thought when preparing an article.
The Space-Plane.org folks are going to be dealing with heat shield materials at some point. Your experience would seem applicable to their project.
Their vehicle is slated to be 60 meters long. I am offering the suggestion they design for a heat shield shell that they slip their plane into like a sock.
The plane can back out of the shield in orbit, and then put it back on for descent.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
By the way, fiberglass attic insulation is an insulation for EXACTLY the same reason as low density ceramics: the void space between the glass fibers is the insulator. Glass itself is actually more of a thermal conductor like stone, just not as good a conductor as metals.
GW
GW Johnson
McGregor, Texas
"There is nothing as expensive as a dead crew, especially one dead from a bad management decision"
Offline
Like button can go here
This post is about research performed at the ISS to test materials made of simulated Lunar and Martian regolith.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/arti … 00343.html
The article at the link above contains numerous images and charts.
The Brighter Side of News
ISS test finds that moon dust could be effective as a lunar building material
Joseph Shavit
Updated Tue, July 7, 2026 at 4:07 PM EDTLunar regolith geopolymers survived six months outside the ISS, and some samples returned stronger than Earth-based controls. (CREDIT: AI-generated image / The Brighter Side of News)
Lunar regolith geopolymers survived six months outside the ISS, with some samples returning stronger than Earth-based controls.
Building material samples from the University of Delaware spent six months bolted to the outside of the International Space Station, exposed to vacuum, radiation and constant temperature swings. When they came back, some were stronger than matching samples kept on Earth.
That result does not mean moon bases are around the corner. But it does offer an encouraging sign for one of the hardest practical problems in space exploration: how to build roads, landing pads, shelters and shields without hauling huge amounts of construction material from Earth.
The team is working with geopolymers, a cement-like material that can be made by chemically binding clay-rich powders into a solid. In this case, the powders were simulated lunar and Martian regolith, stand-ins for the dusty surface material found on those worlds. The results appear in Advances in Space Research, with related processing work reported in Acta Astronautica and a special issue of the Journal of Rheology.
"Regolith is essentially a clay-like silicate material," said Norman Wagner, the Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware. "It is one of the most abundant materials on both Earth and the moon, which makes it interesting for construction."
Researchers in the Wagner lab previously mixed simulated lunar soils with a high-pH solution to create geopolymer bricks, then crushed the bricks to see how strong they were. The experiments aimed to advance ways for astronauts to create building materials in space. (CREDIT: University of Delaware)Researchers in the Wagner lab previously mixed simulated lunar soils with a high-pH solution to create geopolymer bricks, then crushed the bricks to see how strong they were. The experiments aimed to advance ways for astronauts to create building materials in space. (CREDIT: University of Delaware)
A harsh test in orbit
For future lunar missions, that abundance matters. There are no supply depots on the moon, and launching construction material from Earth would be extremely expensive. The appeal of geopolymers is that they could be made largely from local material, with relatively little energy input, because the process does not require melting ingredients at high temperature.
Go deeper with Yahoo ScoutWhat challenges remain for curing geopolymers on the moon?
How might lunar temperature extremes affect geopolymer durability?
What are potential uses for geopolymer materials on Mars?
To test whether those materials can withstand space exposure, Wagner's group sent thin geopolymer plates on NASA's MISSE-20 mission. The samples were mounted outside the space station for 201 days, during which they traveled more than 82 million miles and completed 3,216 orbits of Earth.
The experiment included four formulations: two made from lunar simulants called LHS-1 and BP-1, one made from a Martian simulant called MGS-1C, and one made from metakaolin, a high-purity aluminosilicate used as a comparison material. During flight, the samples saw temperatures from minus 11.75 to 35 degrees Celsius, with swings of about 15 degrees during each orbit. They also absorbed a cumulative ultraviolet dose of 15.0 kilojoules per square centimeter.
Back on Earth, the researchers compared the flown samples with control samples stored in blackout bags for the same period, as well as samples tested shortly after they were made.
Stronger, not weakerThe main finding was straightforward. The lunar and Martian regolith geopolymers held up. LHS-1, BP-1 and MGS-1C samples resisted obvious degradation and maintained high compressive strength after their months in low Earth orbit.
Aluminosilicate powders used for geopolymer synthesis including (A) Lunar Highlands Simulant 1 (LHS-1), (B) Black Point 1 (BP-1), (C) Mars Global Hydrated Clay Simulant (MGS-1C), and (D) metakaolin. (CREDIT: Advances in Space Research)
Aluminosilicate powders used for geopolymer synthesis including (A) Lunar Highlands Simulant 1 (LHS-1), (B) Black Point 1 (BP-1), (C) Mars Global Hydrated Clay Simulant (MGS-1C), and (D) metakaolin. (CREDIT: Advances in Space Research)
In two cases, the flown samples performed better than their Earth-bound twins. LHS-1 samples exposed through MISSE reached an average compressive strength of 60.3 megapascals, compared with 44.7 megapascals for the Earth controls, a difference the team reported as statistically significant. BP-1 samples also showed a significant increase compared with controls. MGS-1C samples trended higher as well, though that difference was not statistically significant.
The researchers concluded that the biggest boost in strength was not caused by space itself, but by pre-flight bakeout testing, which exposed samples to elevated temperature and low pressure before launch. For LHS-1, strength also rose in laboratory samples that went through a similar temperature-swing treatment, pointing to extra curing as the likely reason. The material appears to keep reacting and strengthening over time.
That distinction matters. It suggests the geopolymers did not simply survive orbit, they also tolerated the preparation steps needed to get them there.
Not every formula passed so cleanly.
One material failed differently
The metakaolin geopolymer cracked during bakeout testing before flight. Some samples developed large, sample-spanning fractures, and those cracks were already visible in the earliest station images. During the mission, the exposed surfaces also darkened noticeably.
Images of Earth Control geopolymer samples immediately before and after compression testing for representative samples of (A) LHS-1, (B) BP-Images of Earth Control geopolymer samples immediately before and after compression testing for representative samples of (A) LHS-1, (B) BP-
1, (C) MGS-1C, and (D) metakaolin geopolymers. (CREDIT: Advances in Space Research)The study found that this cracking was linked to the combined pressure and temperature change during bakeout, not to the low Earth orbit exposure itself. X-ray diffraction patterns for the flown and Earth-control metakaolin samples looked nearly identical, which suggests no major chemical change in the binder during flight. Their densities were also essentially unchanged. The authors said possible explanations include the expansion of water trapped in micropores or thermal mismatch between different parts of the material.
By contrast, the LHS-1, BP-1 and MGS-1C regolith-based samples showed no comparable cracking after space exposure. X-ray tomography also found no clear internal differences between the flown and Earth-control versions of those three materials.
That is the more important result for lunar construction, because those are the compositions meant to mimic off-Earth soils.
Building with local dust
The work does more than show that a space-tested material can survive. It also points to a way of making construction on the moon more practical.
The researchers note that water used in geopolymer synthesis is not chemically locked into the final binder structure and may be recoverable after curing. That gives geopolymers an advantage over ordinary Portland cement, which permanently ties water into its reaction products. On the moon, where every kilogram matters, that could make a real difference.
Images of metakaolin geopolymer samples following (A) simulated bakeout testing at the University of Delaware and (B) pre-flight bakeout testing performed by Aegis Aerospace. Images from Egnaczyk and Wagner, J. Rheology. (CREDIT: Advances in Space Research)
The team also looked at what it might take to scale this up. In one example, they estimated the mass needed to make one cubic meter of LHS-1 geopolymer concrete with a 75 percent aggregate volume fraction. Under those assumptions, the lift mass from Earth would be 60.7 kilograms per cubic meter, mostly sodium hydroxide and silica, while the regolith, aggregate and water would be sourced locally. A 40-meter landing pad 1.2 centimeters thick would require 15.0 cubic meters of material.
The stresses expected on a vertical takeoff, vertical landing pad are far below the strengths measured in these samples. That does not settle the engineering problem, but it shows the basic material is in the right range.
Other studies and workA second study from the Delaware group tackled another obstacle: lunar dirt is not all the same. The researchers developed a machine learning model that predicts geopolymer strength from the properties of the starting regolith and the way it is processed.
More in Science
In separate rheology work, they also identified a "critical gel point," the stage at which the slurry stops behaving like a workable paste and starts becoming a solid structure. Before that point, mixing or shearing did not change final hardening time or strength.
That suggests lunar builders may have some room to mix, pump and shape these materials without ruining them.
Measured compressive strength of geopolymer samples following varied environmental testing including (A) LHS-1, (B) BP-1, (C) MGS-1C, andMeasured compressive strength of geopolymer samples following varied environmental testing including (A) LHS-1, (B) BP-1, (C) MGS-1C, and
(D) metakaolin geopolymer samples. (CREDIT: Advances in Space Research)Practical implications of the research
The immediate takeaway is that several regolith-based geopolymers can survive an important early proving ground: prolonged exposure outside the International Space Station. That strengthens the case for using local lunar material, rather than Earth-made concrete, in future habitats, radiation shielding, landing pads and other infrastructure.
The study also narrows the next questions. The materials still need testing under more severe lunar conditions, including deeper cold, larger temperature swings, micrometeorite impacts and longer exposure times. Just as important, engineers will need reliable ways to cure these binders on the moon, where vacuum and low temperatures can slow or disrupt strength development.
Still, the result is a practical one. A construction material made mostly from local dust did not fall apart in space, and in some cases came back tougher than before.Research findings are available online in the journal Advances in Space Research.
The original story "ISS test finds that moon dust could be effective as a lunar building material" is published in The Brighter Side of News.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here