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Starting construction without having the needed materials is the approach followed at ITER. This way of working is based in a very reasonable idea: available ma
by yiyus 10y ago
Starting construction without having the needed materials is the approach followed at ITER. This way of working is based in a very reasonable idea: available materials have been improving since ever, there is no reason to think this progress will stop now.
- mcv 10y agoBut it's hard to even imagine what something stronger than carbon nanutubes would look like. How much stronger than diamond-like molecular bonds can you get?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- yiyus 10y agoAccording to simulations, 58% [1]. Experimental confirmation is still needed. Although we are still far from it, it is something that we could see in our life times. [1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-longer-natures-hardest-material/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-long...
- wcoenen 10y agoHardness is not the same as tensile strength.
- yiyus 10y agoI know. From the linked article: "The simulation showed that wurtzide boron nitride would withstand 18 per cent more stress than diamond, and lonsdaleite 58 per cent more." The title of the article is misleading.
- wcoenen 10y agoThe title of that article is accurate, where it says "stress" they are really referring to hardness and not tensile strength. The quoted 58% comes from this paper, it talks about "hardness" and "indentation strength" in the abstract: http://sci-hub.cc/10.1103/physrevlett.102.055503 http://sci-hub.cc/10.1103/physrevlett.102.055503
- yiyus 10y agoYou are right, I stand corrected. They actually talk about tensile strength in the PRL article: "It is noted that lonsdaleite exhibits almost identical ideal tensile strength and only slightly larger pure ideal shear strength compared to diamond. The significant enhancement in its indentation strength occurs under biaxial stress loading conditions. The situation in w-BN versus c-BN is similar. All past calculations have shown that diamond exhibits the highest strength under various loading conditions compared to other materials, which was consistent with all available measurements. Here we show for the first time that w-BN and lonsdaleite exhibit higher strength than diamond under indentation." So, indeed, diamond is still the winner here.
- the8472 10y agowe could start by getting an asteroid into orbit, this could be used as orbital station, construction site and counterweight for a future elevator