Aymen Abi Oula science year 8

Imagine you are a scientist in charge of developing new materials. The Australian Space Agency has
approached you because they need a new substance to coat the outside of the space shuttles they
are designing.

For this to happen you will need six ingredients for it to happen so let’s start

1. It will need to be able to withstand the heat of the shuttle re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere
atmospheric re-entry. Interesting Engineering By Interesting Engineering
January 24th, 2017
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What Keeps Spaceships from Burning Up During Re-entry?
NASA Johnson
Getting astronauts into space challenges engineers with unprecedentedly difficult problems.
Though the spacecraft may have been proven during the launch and duration of space
exposure, it must still endure one of the most demanding challenges of all: re-entry. At the
end of a mission, spaceships re-enter the Earth's atmosphere as they travel more than 30,000
km/h. The tremendous speed of the re-entry vehicle compresses the air below into a hot ball
of plasma which encircles the craft. Getting the astronauts home safely will require
protecting them from the heat as it reaches thousands of degrees.
2. Flexible enough to bend when the wings of the shuttle bend
The flexible items are mix of tension, compression, torsional

3. strong enough to stand the vibration of take-off, landing and other movement

What metal is used in spacecrafts?

Therefore, Aluminium and aluminium composite materials are used on spacecraft. Aluminium is light
but also very sturdy. Using titanium alloys can also strengthen the body of the ship. Space ships need
to be solid for safety, but they also need to be light so that they have a better chance of escaping
earth's gravitational pull with less fuel or propellant, which is heavy and expensive on its own.
Therefore, Aluminium and aluminium composite materials are used on spacecraft. Aluminium is light
but also very sturdy. Using titanium alloys can also strengthen the body of the ship. The space shuttle
also had very special thermal protection tiles, which helped it survive the heat of re-entry. They are
made a ceramic composite, with the bottom of the tiles made from a carbon composite to provide for
the most heat protection.

4. light enough to be part of a flying spacecraft

The upcoming chipset test, called KickSat-2, is the second incarnation of a crowdfunded
mission developed by researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The shoebox-
sized KickSat-1 spacecraft successfully launched on 18 April 2014, but it failed to deploy its
cargo of 104 chipsets after a cosmic radiation burst reset the clock on its release mechanism.
The craft fell out of orbit and burned up with the chipsets still in its hold.

5. resistant to chemical attack

Resistance to Chemical Attack. Fortunately, most concrete in service is not subjected to chemical
attack. Concrete is generally less able to resist successfully corrosion of this kind than disintegration
by other forces. By chemical attack is meant leaching and acid or sulphate attack.
Aymen Abi Oula science year 8

6. able to reflect the solar radiation in space.

chrome or silver had probably a much better albedo, because they are white, with very good
reflectivity - eligible to make mirrors. Gold is yellow; thus, it doesn't reflect very well, at least
not in the whole visible spectrum.