Preparation of one of the Euro Material Ageing’s experiments for launch. The Comat module holds specimens selected and tested by ESA. Image: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/COMAT.
UCD’s Prof Kate Robson Brown leads the development of analytical models that predict the lifetime of composites in low-Earth orbit.
A “new generation” of materials were sent into Earth’s orbit to undergo rigorous testing to see if they could be used to build future space stations and spacecrafts.
The carbon fibre reinforced composites, developed at the University of Bristol, left for the International Space Station (ISS) from the John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida early today (5 November) where they will be placed on the Bartolomeo platform on the front of the ISS to be tested in the extreme harshness of space.
The materials will orbit Earth up to 9,000 times over the next 12 to 18 months at speeds of more than 27,000kph. They will need to survive temperatures between minus 150 degree Celsius and 120 degree Celsius, space debris travelling seven times faster than a bullet, severe electromagnetic radiation, high vacuum and atomic oxygen – which erodes even the toughest of materials.
The launch is a culmination of the European Space Agency’s research developing new materials for space as part of the Euro Materials Ageing mission.
Bristol Composites Institute (BCI), which is based at the University of Bristol, was one of the 15 teams selected for the project.
Leading the project, Prof Ian Hamerton from BCI said: “Space is the most challenging environment for which to design new materials.
“You’re pitting your materials expertise, skills and ingenuity against extremes of temperature, mechanical stress, radiation, high speed impacts and more. Any one of those might be difficult, and, unfortunately, gaining access to repair them is not an easy option, so the materials we build must survive without maintenance.”
Research has shown that the physical, chemical and optical properties of matter change continuously as a result of solar radiation. To assess how the materials perform, the group will collect real-time mass loss data which will be used to validate analytical models in development that predict the lifetime of composites in low-Earth orbit.
Prof Kate Robson Brown from University College Dublin’s (UCD) School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering leads the development of these analytical models.
“After nearly five years of research to develop novel composite materials for space applications it is very exciting to see our experiment launch to the International Space Station,” she said.
Brown, who previously worked at the University of Bristol, added: “I am proud to be part of this mission, and to be working with the multidisciplinary and multisector research team to deliver integrated real world and digital testing for innovative materials which will help to drive growth in the new space economy.”
“The opportunity to test our materials in the proving ground of space is priceless and will help our University of Bristol scientists on the ground improve fibre-reinforced materials for next-generation space missions,” said Hamerton.
The Bartolomeo platform, designed by Airbus, is attached to the ISS Columbus Module and enables the ISS to host up to 12 external payloads, providing opportunities for research on the environment, material sciences and astrophysics.
Recently, a team based out of Trinity developed a new material using carbon nanotubes to bind fine sand and lunar and Martian regolith into sturdy material to use as building blocks on terrain outside Earth.
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