Review
The world's scientific and technological achievements in the last 100 years are more than all previous scientific and technological achievements combined, and the speed of change in the last 10 years is faster than that of the past 100 years. Although mankind is still facing many problems, it is no exaggeration to say that the level of human science and technology is developing rapidly.
The application and development of new materials is a deep understanding of the gifts of nature. It was once thought that the toughness of a material and the strength of a material were difficult to reconcile, but this view is being changed by mainland scientists.
The idea of a space elevator
The earliest idea of the space elevator dates back to 1895, when Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, known as the "father of astronautics", was inspired to imagine that space transportation could be more economical and convenient if a similar structure, 35,800 kilometers high, but relatively stationary on the ground, could be built.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States and Japan ambitiously devoted themselves to the study of space elevators. NASA has declared the space elevator the go-to project for the challenge of the century. They believe that once the project is completed, such as a rocket launch, the cost of the space shuttle will be greatly reduced, and the space elevator will only cost $10 per kilogram of goods.
The Japanese construction company Obayashi Gumi plans to build a space elevator that will send visitors into space about 36,000 kilometers above the ground. The cable of the space elevator will be connected to a space station in space, and it will only take more than a week for people to enter space. According to the plan of the Obayashi group, the dream of a space elevator is expected to become a reality by 2050.
Space elevators are very risky
Why are people planning and researching, but they are so late that they don't dare to start work? This is because the risks of this project have been repeatedly proven to be ridiculously high, and one of the main factors is that human materials science has not yet reached the level of resistance to all risks.
First of all, the anchoring of the space elevator is a huge difficulty, and the extremely long distance will cause the space elevator to sway in the air, which can cause traffic obstacles or air accidents. Secondly, once the space junk and meteorites floating in space hit the elevator or skeleton, you can imagine what kind of disaster it will bring. In order to increase the number of stabilizers and guards, the cost and difficulty of construction will also increase exponentially, whether it is nanotubes or millimeter-level products, which puts forward almost demanding requirements for the toughness and strength of materials.
Continental scientists put forward the theory of new materials
Mainland scientists have published an article in the international journal "Matter" titled "High-strength, super-tough whole spider silk fiber spun from genetically modified silkworms". It broke the previous belief that for the same material, ultra-high strength and super toughness cannot be combined.
Based on this research, the spider silk protein fibers they made the silkworm "spit out" exhibited amazing tensile strength and amazing toughness. Its toughness reaches 319 megajoules per cubic meter, which is six times higher than the Kevlar material developed by DuPont in the United States that can be used to make body armor. The strength has been improved, or it can reach a tensile strength of more than 3000 MPa of high-strength carbon fiber. Researchers claim that the new material may be able to turn a space elevator into reality.
Great application promotion value
In fact, the space elevator can not only be used for transportation between the earth and space, it can also be used for the lunar space station and the lunar base, Mars exploration, and the communication connection between the space station and the space station.
New materials can be used in an extremely wide range of applications in extreme environments such as space. If we can obtain this super-strong, super-tough space material, it will bring great progress to the development of our space industry.
epilogue
The pace of human exploration of space is firm and heroic, and it is believed that with the progress of science and technology, mankind will eventually turn science fiction into reality.