Scientists test light propulsion for spacecraft
A light-driven propulsion could save fuel for space missions. Scientists have tested such a system during an ESA parabolic flight.
Graphene-based aerogels
(Image: Advanced Materials Technologies)
Is this the propulsion for the spacecraft of the future? A team of scientists has developed an aerogel made of graphene that could be used as a light-driven propulsion for spacecraft. In near weightlessness, the aerogel showed an astonishing reaction when illuminated with a laser.
The aerogel, developed by the team from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium and Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), consists of a rigid framework of graphene, a single-layer carbon. Since the aerogel consists largely of air, it is very light, yet has high mechanical strength. Finally, it has the high electrical conductivity of graphene.
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The Belgian-Arab team tested the suitability of graphene aerogel as a possible propulsion for spacecraft during a parabolic flight, as reported by the European Space Agency (ESA). For this purpose, three small aerogel cubes, which were in vacuum chambers, were irradiated with a laser.
On Earth, under terrestrial gravity, hardly anything happened. In the near weightlessness during the parabolic flight, the cubes shot forward with immense speed.
Faster than the blink of an eye
“The reaction was fast and furious. Before you could even begin to blink, the graphene aerogels experienced large accelerations,” says Marco Braibanti, ESA project scientist for the experiment titled light-driven propulsion of graphene aerogels in microgravity. “It was all over in 30 milliseconds.”
(Image:Â ULB/Khalifa University)
The acceleration depends on the intensity of the laser: “The stronger the laser, the greater the acceleration,” says Braibanti.
The team describes its development in the journal Advanced Science. The ESA emphasizes that this is still basic research. However, the graphene aerogel opens up the possibility for efficient propulsion in space. For example, future solar sails could be made of graphene. Control systems for satellites made of the single-layer carbon are also conceivable. Such light-based propulsion could reduce fuel in future space missions, creating more space for scientific experiments, for example.
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(wpl)
