Nanotechnology in space

Nanotechnology could lead to radical improvements for space exploration. When it comes to

taking the next "giant leap" in space exploration, scientists are thinking small - really small.

In laboratories around the world, governments are supporting the burgeoning science of nanotechnology. The basic idea is to learn to deal with matter at the atomic scale -- to be able to

control individual atoms and molecules well enough to design molecule-size machines, advanced electronics and "smart" materials.

Nanotechnology could lead to robots you can hold on your fingertip, self-healing spacesuits, space elevators and other fantastic devices. Some of these things may take 20+ years to fully develop; others are taking shape in the laboratory today.

Nanotechnology could provide the very high-strength, low-weight fibers that would be needed to build the cable of a space elevator.

Simply making things smaller has its advantages. Imagine, for example, if the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity could have been made as small as a beetle, and could scurry over rocks and gravel as a beetle can, sampling minerals and searching for clues to the history of water on Mars. Hundreds or thousands of these diminutive robots could have been sent in the same capsules that carried the two desk-size rovers, enabling scientists to explore much more of the planet's

surface - and increasing the odds of stumbling across a fossilized Martian bacterum!

But nanotech is about more than just shrinking things. When scientists can deliberately order and structure matter at the molecular level, amazing new properties sometimes emerge.

An excellent example is that darling of the nanotech world, the carbon nanotube. Carbon occurs naturally as graphite - the soft, black material often used in pencil leads -- and as diamond. The only difference between the two is the arrangement of the carbon atoms. When scientists arrange the same carbon atoms into a "chicken wire" pattern and roll them up into miniscule tubes only 10 atoms across, the resulting "nanotubes" acquire some rather extraordinary traits.

Nanotubes have 100 times the tensile strength of steel, but only 1/6 the weight; are 40 times stronger than graphite fibers; conduct electricity better than copper; can be either conductors or semiconductors (like computer chips), depending on the arrangement of atoms; and are excellent conductors of heat.

Much of current nanotechnology research worldwide focuses on these nanotubes. Scientists have proposed using them for a wide range of applications: in the high-strength, low-weight

cable needed for a space elevator; as molecular wires for nano-scale electronics; embedded in microprocessors to help siphon off heat; and as tiny rods and gears in nano-scale machines, just to name a few. Scientists are looking at how nano-materials could be used for advanced life support, ultra-powerful computers, and tiny sensors for chemicals or even sensors for cancer."

A chemical sensor using nanotubes can detect as little as a few parts per billion of specific chemicals--like toxic gases--making it useful for both space exploration and homeland defense. Tomorrow's spacecraft will be built using advanced nano-materials. Molecule-size sensors inside astronauts' cells could warn of health impacts from space radiation.

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 1012