Space Aerogel

cygo
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Space Aerogel

First Space-Produced Aerogel Made on Space Sciences Laboratory Rocket Flight


Aerogel is the lightest solid known to mankind, with only three times the density of air.

Aerogel produced on the ground typically displays a blue haze or has a slight cloudiness to its appearence. This feature is believed to be caused by impurities and variations in the size of small pores in the Aerogel material. Scientists are trying to eliminate this haze so that the insulator might be used in window panes and other applications where transparency is important.

The Aerogel made aboard the flight of the Starfire Rocket in April has indicated that gravity effects in samples of the material made on the ground may be responsible for the adverse pore sizes and thus account for the lack of transparency. Both the diameter and volume of the pores in the space-made Aerogel appear to be between 4 and 5 times better than otherwise identically formulated ground samples. Because Aerogels are the only known transparent insulator, with typical heat conduction properties that are five times better than the next best alternative, a number of novel applications are foreseen in high performance Aerogels.


 

http://cygo.com/saerogel/

 

 


cygo
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correction--

that's at

http://cygo.com/66saerogel/

source:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1996/msad08oct96_1/

 

Contact Dr. David Noever
Code ES71
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville AL 35812
for more information about aerogels

 

 


100percentAtheist
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cygo wrote: Because

cygo wrote:

 Because Aerogels are the only known transparent insulator, with typical heat conduction properties that are five times better than the next best alternative, a number of novel applications are foreseen in high performance Aerogels.

 

This is pretty much bullshit.  Vacuum is by far the best and the most transparent thermal insulating material (not considering radiative heating).  Even air has lower thermal conductivity than aerogel.


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100percentAtheist
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cygo

 

Oh, of course, I am sure you have your 14 year old source.  Not everything that is written on every science related resourse is absolutely valid or correct.  Yes, aerogels are used as insulation, usually in commercial settings.  The idea to use them together with class is crazy, frankly speaking.  Gas-filled multilayer class windows work like magic.  No aerogel is needed. 

 

Now, if you truly believe that burning a rocket full of fuel to make aerogel in space, then bring it back and install it in your house as thermal insulation is a good idea that saves some energy, then you are a freak without science.  Smiling

If you add your space-made class on top of aerogel, then the price of one window can easily go above one million dollars.

 

 


cygo
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I'm getting heckled.

LOL

 

 


BobSpence
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Glass is a transparent

Glass is a transparent insulator, as is acrylic plastic (Perspex), among other things.

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Athene
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Of course anything can be

Of course anything can be considered an insulator, because anything will show at least a little resistance to heat. However, Aerogel is far above such hair-splitting:

 

This technology is mind-blowing. Read the Wikipedia article ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel ) - if there is a God, he must be surely made out of Aerogel Eye-wink I saw a picture once that was even more impressive: On the left side someone was holding a burning welding torch at the Aerogel pane, and on the right side another person fearlessly leaned against it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find that anymore in the past years...


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cygo wrote:Aerogel produced

cygo wrote:

Aerogel produced on the ground typically displays a blue haze or has a slight cloudiness to its appearence. This feature is believed to be caused by impurities and variations in the size of small pores in the Aerogel material. Scientists are trying to eliminate this haze so that the insulator might be used in window panes and other applications where transparency is important.

 

In addition,

Some aerogels are of course good thermal insulators, and wonderful materials.  However, the concept of making them transparent by removing "impurities" is non sense.  In Wikipedia everyone can find that "The slight color it does have is due to Rayleigh scattering of the shorter wavelengths of visible light by the nanosized dendritic structure. This causes it to appear smoky blue against dark backgrounds and yellowish against bright backgrounds."  This is very similar to optical properties of photonic crystals.  The size of the pores of aerogel is comparable with the wavelength of optical radiation (light).  This means (in common terms) that some colors of the light will actively interact with the material while others will not.  Bluish haze appearance is the inherent property of aerogels and not some kind of defects, as suggested in the original post.  My educated guess is that a completely transparent aerogel will lose a good part of its insulating properties.