By akademiotoelektronik, 05/02/2023

An insulator to colonize Mars |The press

Researchers work to develop a technology that would keep liquid water on the surface of Mars, which would facilitate the colonization of the red planet.The first results are conclusive: a thin layer of aerogel increases the temperature of cold deserts on earth.

Publié le 27 oct. 2019Mathieu Perreault La Presse

65 ° C

Although Mars is further from the sun than the earth, the cold that reigns on this planet - where the average temperature is - 65 ° C - is mainly due to the absence of atmosphere.However, a thin layer of two to three centimeters of a powerful insulating which lets pass the light, called "aerogel", would increase the temperature above the freezing point of the water."We arrived in the laboratory at an increase of 65 ° C," explains RobinWordsworth, aerospace engineer at Harvard University, who is the main author of the study published last summer in the journal Nature Astronomy."It allows us to adjust a dilemma of a possible Martian base: must it be located at the Ecuador to have more sun, therefore more energy and less cold nights, or near the poles, where there issome water ?With a silica aerogel, you can establish ourselves near the poles.The silica aerogel tested in the laboratory had an area of 18 cm by 18 cm.The next step is a test in the Atacama desert in Chile, then another in the dry valleys of Antarctica.

Aerogels in space ...

NASA has been studying aerogels for thirty years."We used it as internal insulation in the Martian Sprir and Opportunity probes [launched in 2003]," said M.Wordsworth.And also to catch comet dust particles during the Stardust mission [launched in 1999].But in the case of Stardust, the aerogel was chosen for its ability to retain very fine particles, not because it was an insulator.»M.Wordsworth, qui a travaillé avec des spécialistes du Jet Propulsion Laboratory de la NASA (JPL), a eu l’idée d’utiliser un aérogel pour une base martienne lors d’un séminaire de planification de telles missions en 2015.

… And on earth

Half a dozen aerogel manufacturers use their properties for their insulation capacity, two to five times higher than that of gels and other foams."It is mainly in electronics, and also in certain industrial processes," explains M.Wordsworth.In theory, we could also use it to isolate houses, for clothes, for better windows, but they cost very expensive to produce, especially on large areas.I imagine that the first applications will be the places where there is very little space for the insulation, as we see at the moment in electronics.Think of the pipes inside walls, structures, under the ground.»»

80 years of research

Aerogels were invented in the 1930s by an American chemical engineer, who first used it to improve the texture of the paintings.A renewed interest in aerogels followed a simplification of their manufacture by a French chemist in the 1970s, according to Aerogel.Org, an information site set up by an American artist and chemical engineer."They are very delicate to conceive," says M.Wordsworth.The water must be removed from a gel and replace it with gas.But if we go too fast by removing the water, or any other solvent used in the gel, we change its structure and it becomes brittle.»»

Martian bases

The father of Nazi missiles V1 and V2, Wernher von Braun, was the first to formally propose the establishment of a Martian colony in 1952, while working for the space program and military rockets in the United States.The idea has been dreaming since.

March on the big screen

Lots of water has flowed under the bridges since the first film featured a inhabited station on the red planet, Flight to Mars, in 1951.Here are some of the most notable or well-known.