Up until now, the most common materials, both lightweight and strong, for spaceships and satellites have included aluminum alloys, titanium, carbon composites, and steel. More generally speaking, alloys and composites. Alloys are a mixture of metals and metal with non-metal; composites are a combination of materials with very different compositions. And for aerospace, they have to withstand extreme conditions such as large temperature variations, atmospheric pressure differences, radiation exposure, and impact. (1)
One especially compelling reason for the use of “metamaterials,” or synthetic composites, in space is that they can be fine tuned or specialized for novel performance. And “meta” means “beyond.” An example of a novel or unnatural behavior is with stacked graphene, the layers exhibit unconventional and advantageous magnetism. (2) And one prominent use of metamaterial in action lately is the NASA solar sail. Exotic custom materials seem like the perfect choice for the exotic space environment(s).
The space environment is unnatural to us, yet there it waits in its vastness for our exploration, asking that humanity get beyond the exploitation of militarism, to invest in the expansion of life, rather than death. The cosmos is nature, and also our home, just a bit more difficult for us to access, like the deep sea here on Earth.
Among other uses, metamaterials could help build the bridge to interstellar civilization, alongside quantum mechanics, electronics, magnetism and acoustics. Space, after all, is not a void, and is rich with particles and electromagnetic frequencies and fields. And advances in imaging and detection continue to yield more detail of this “unseen” realm.
Metamaterials offer great possibilities in many sectors due to their unusual properties: Miniaturization, and their ability through patterned artisanal design to interface with cosmic forces, such as the electrostatic field. They form a relatively new and exciting branch of material science.
Imagine a propellantless spacecraft! The company Falcon Space for one is currently is – that uses its structure and composition for propulsion, with significantly reduced weight. This is deep circular tech on the atomic and subatomic levels, making use of “alternative physics.” (3)
So what are some of promising metamaterials in development for aerospace? And what are the qualities that make them such?
One example of a useful quality is “negative refractive index” which means that the material reverses wave propagation. That would lend itself well to shielding. And “split ring resonators” to adjust electromagnetic response.
The overall ability of these designer polymers to manipulate electromagnetic waves can help navigate the space environment, with micro interactions interfacing with macro phenomena, such as stellar wind and electric currents and the cosmic web.
- “Chapter 2: Aerospace Materials Characteristics” | Biliyar N. Bhat, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center | https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20180001137/downloads/20180001137.pdf
- “From a five-layer graphene sandwich, a rare electronic state emerges” | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | October 2023 | https://phys.org/news/2023-10-five-layer-graphene-sandwich-rare-electronic.html#:~:text=Now%2C%20MIT%20physicists%20have%20discovered,which%20the%20team%20has%20coined
- ”Technologies” | Falcon Space | https://www.falconspace.org/#technologies
- “Metamaterials for Aerospace Applications“ | Defense Intelligence Reference Document | 6 April 2010 | Defense Intelligence Agency https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dird/metamaterials-applications.pdf