Razor-thin skin protects tiny spacecrafts

Fleets of miniature spacecraft may now be closer to liftoff

To bring this sci-fi vision of 50-pound “micro-spacecraft” and 10-pound “nano-spacecraft” to reality, scientists have now invented a razor-thin skin that can protect craft against the extreme heat and intense cold found in outer space and withstand micrometeoroids hurtling at thousands of miles per hour.

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Instead, the researchers developed an offshoot of a classified military technology — a slender, lightweight film less than a half-millimeter thick that feels like flexible plastic and can alter its color when given an electrical charge. This change of hue works not just in the visible spectrum, but in the infrared or heat range as well, meaning that it can go from radiating heat in hot temperatures to absorbing heat in freezing temperatures.

The film was cycled repeatedly between minus 58 degrees F and 212 degrees F (minus 50 degrees C and 100 degrees C) in a vacuum for three months to simulate the intense heat and cold of space that probes routinely experience. The film successfully endured such tests, and kept items it was wrapped around at 122 degrees F to 176 degrees F (50 degrees C to 80 degrees C), “which is just fine for spacecraft,” Chandrasekhar said….

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26294999/

Breakthrough Could Revolutionize the Production of Hydrogen

An international team of researchers led by Monash University has used chemicals found in plants to replicate a key process in photosynthesis paving the way to a new approach that uses sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The breakthrough could revolutionise the renewable energy industry by making hydrogen – touted as the clean, green fuel of the future – cheaper and easier to produce on a commercial scale.

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news08/next-energy-news8.18.08d.html