Russia, China may pool efforts to create materials for future spacecraft — scientist
"It is fundamentally important to achieve the minimum mass while retaining such properties as strength and resistance to adverse external effects," Yevgeny Alexandrov pointed out
MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. High-tech materials for new-generation spacecraft may become one of the results of the Russia-China lunar program, Yevgeny Alexandrov, the leading researcher of the Competence Center of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) "Digital Materials Science: New Materials and Substances" on the basis of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University has told TASS.
Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students and professors of Harbin Polytechnic University in China that Russia and China were making plans for joint exploration of the Moon, involving the implementation of "some remarkable and very promising" projects, adding that these initiatives required heavy funding.
"One of the areas in which Russia and China may join forces in implementing the lunar program is the development of new materials. For example, they can be used [to create new] spacecraft. It is fundamentally important to achieve the minimum mass while retaining such properties as strength and resistance to adverse external effects. Conditions at lunar stations will be very different from the ones we have on Earth. It is extremely important to probe into new materials’ performance in such situations and the possibilities of their use," Alexandrov said.
"A number of such polymers have been developed at the NTI Competence Center "Digital Materials Science: New Materials and Substances" at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. At the same time, experience shows that materials created for the space industry eventually have many uses on Earth. For example, such polymers [today] are used both for spacecraft hulls and implants in medicine," Alexandrov said.
In March 2021, Roscosmos and China signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation in creating the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). In early March, Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov said that Russia and China were exploring the possibility of delivering a nuclear power plant to the Moon and installing it on its surface in 2033-2035.