Towards lighter plastic and carbon fiber rockets?

The European Space Agency and a private German company are planning to make the rockets of the future lighter. And most importantly, significant savings in fuel and money.

While spaceflight is currently undergoing the little billionaire revolution, a German project from MT Aerospace, with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA), could make spaceflights less expensive. The solution ? Rocket fuel tanks are made of plastic and carbon fiber, which are lighter and more economical than metal tanks.

The tank is small in size and made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and can contain hydrogen and liquid oxygen without fear of any leakage. Most importantly, the tank dispenses with any metal lining, allowing the chassis to be lighter. What will make space flight less expensive in the future?

In addition to being lighter, the tank of the company MT Aerospace also consists of fewer parts. In fact, the structure is faster and less expensive to assemble than other cabinet models. And whoever says weight gain, inevitably says fuel economy. And therefore in the money.

Lighter and less expensive missile

The project is promising and is receiving great interest from the European Space Agency. “This is a huge step forward. We have found a very specific carbon compound and processing method that allows us to consider new structures and combinations of functions for upper stages of rockets., which is not possible with metal,” even announced Kate Underhill, project manager at the European Space Agency.

“Replacing aluminum with carbon composite can increase payload capacity by 2 tons”According to Daniel Neuschwander, Director of Space Transport at the European Space Agency. The material has of course been extensively tested and has withstood extremely cold temperatures, pressure cycles and reactive materials. This most innovative project will also be applied to the upper stage of the European Space Agency’s Phoebus rocket for the Ariane 6 launcher.

Source : Gizmodo