High-temperature ceramics takes flight
A recent NASA flight test ending at the Kwajalein missile range in the Pacific might lead to a new aerospace design that would make the space shuttle look downright old-fashioned.
At the end of September, NASA sent four 5-inch, triangular forms made of so-called ultrahigh-temperature ceramics into space for a 23-minute flight. Scientists have proposed that such materials could help improve a spacecraft’s leading edges, where heat and other degradative processes are most pronounced. During the NASA flight, the vehicle retracted two of the forms, or strakes, from their exterior position just before they were expected to start burning up, and the other two were retracted a bit later. Meanwhile, sensors recorded the temperature in the strakes and transmitted the data to Earth.