Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

tonymmorley OP t1_j0fsikh wrote

"An alloy made of almost equal amounts of chromium, cobalt and nickel resists fracturing even at incredibly cold temperatures, which could make it useful for building spacecraft" — Toughest material ever is an alloy of chromium, cobalt and nickel 🧊

Now, presuming you don't have mad bank to flex on a New Scientist subscription, and seeing as how I can't jump the paywall effectively, here's another alternative source.

This Alloy Is The Toughest Known Material on Earth, And It Gets Tougher in The Cold

> "An alloy of chromium, cobalt, and nickel has just given us the highest fracture toughness ever measured in a material on Earth.
It has exceptionally high strength and ductility, leading to what a team of scientists has called "outstanding damage tolerance".
Moreover – and counterintuitively – these properties increase as the material gets colder, suggesting some interesting potential for applications in extreme cryogenic environments."

89

WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0g05ji wrote

Hmm cobalt, this is not coming cheap, SpaceX's starship made of steel certainly much cheaper.

13

psychodelephant t1_j0g0lbq wrote

As soon as the electric rockets start rolling off the line, they’ll need cobalt. /s

1

WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0g1sfh wrote

Yeah, lol. When you're already in space electricity driven engines do work, like Ion thruster, but for breaking away from Earth's gravity we still need to figure out some new physics, not totally impossible.

1

Clatuu1337 t1_j0h6owe wrote

I think in the future larger ships will be constructed outside of Earth's atmosphere. People will use smaller ones to transition to the surface, or maybe like space elevators.

I also think eventually we won't rely on combustion to reach the atmosphere. My thoughts were centrifugal force or some kind of magnetic accelerator.

That being said, I am in no way an expert. Just some dude on reddit.

3

WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0hast9 wrote

> I also think eventually we won't rely on combustion to reach the atmosphere. My thoughts were centrifugal force or some kind of magnetic accelerator.

I like the space elevator (easy on the Moon and even Mars) for Earth there's also laser launcher/accelerator, also doubles as wicked laser gun.

source: trust me bro, just another dude on reddit

2

RedCascadian t1_j0hbfne wrote

Aliens: So how did you get your ship so fast without warpsrive?

Humans: "oh we set off nukes behind ourselves and ride the explosion."

Aliens: "the fuck? How did you nit destroy your planet already?"

Humans: "oh no, we get to the explosion ships by shooting a smaller ship with lasers to send it to orbit, or we just hurl it through a giant rail gun into orbit.

Aliens: O_O

6

curtial t1_j0hf50u wrote

Humans are Space Orcs: Confirmed.

4

WaitformeBumblebee t1_j0hhrqb wrote

yeah, lol, and here's just the thing to launch humans from a giant rail gun (slightly tweaked Julius Verne original idea btw):

"A protein found in human cells has been repurposed to make a material that reforms when it is struck by a projectile, capturing the object intact"

"When something hits the gel, the energy unfolds the modified talin switches rather than being converted to heat, as is the case with existing materials, says Goult. Silica gels filled with air, or aerogels, have previously been used to capture small objects in space, but these heat up on impact, potentially damaging both themselves and the captured material."

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2350814-biogel-armour-can-stop-a-supersonic-projectile-in-its-tracks/

Perfect airbag to cushion the 20 G's hitting your meatbag, lol

2

ADhomin_em t1_j0gwrv5 wrote

EM drive confirmed?!

−1

Strange_Bedfellow t1_j0h6u55 wrote

We already use low-power ion engines and such. They're great in space, since there's nothing to slow you down.

Getting the ion engine into space is the tricky part.

1

Ok_Kale_2509 t1_j0jhgdh wrote

So I wonder if it continues to get tougher no matter how cold. If so that's pretty amazing for space.

1