NASA and carbon nanotubes

Hi All,
NASA is doing a deep dive into nanoscale materials to make rockets lighter. The "Super-lightweight Aerospace Composites (SAC) project" tries to scale up the manufacturing and use of high-strength carbon nanotube composite materials.

Carbon nanotubes consist of carbon atoms arranged in the shape of cylinders with a diameter less than 1/80,000 of that of a human hair. At that scale, carbon nanotubes are about 100 times stronger than steel but eight times lighter.
“Strong and lightweight materials are of interest for many applications,” said Jim Reuter, the acting associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).

Led by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, a team of researchers is working with other NASA centers and agencies, but also industry partners to drive this technology forward.

“Ultra-lightweight materials is an exciting area of space technology,” said LaNetra Tate, a program executive at NASA. “Carbon nanotubes have mechanical properties that promise high payoff for future exploration missions.”
NASA is conducting research in order to figure out how to build large structures from this material for different applications. To do that, NASA needs a lot more of the carbon nanotube material to work with.

That’s why NASA’s Game Changing Development program entered into a research agreement with Nanocomp Technologies Inc. of Merrimack, New Hampshire. Nanocomp is working to scale up manufacturing capabilities and lower production costs of high-strength carbon nanotube yarn.
“NASA’s goal is to begin using the larger quantities of material from Nanocomp to build structures within a few years.”, said Mia Siochi, senior research materials engineer and lead for SAC.

A flight test in 2017 demonstrated that the material can be used for "Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels" (COPVs), which are designed to hold fluid under pressure and are used in many capacities such as propellant tanks. The COPV was the first large item NASA built using carbon nanotube composites. Another NASA Phase III SBIR contract was awarded to San Diego Composites in California. The company will be building prototype COPVs made with carbon nanotube materials.

Besides upscaling, NASA is also working with several universities, companies and the Air Force Research Laboratory through the Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design. This institute engages 22 professors from universities across the country to conduct modeling and experimental studies of carbon nanotube materials on an atomistic molecular level, macro-scale and in between.
“We’re taking a multidisciplinary approach to move this technology forward and better understand the mechanical properties,” Siochi said. “Studies show we could get about 25 percent savings in mass. Every pound we save reduces cost and that has a real impact on space missions.”

My interpretation: Not too much progress so far. A 25% savings in mass is not that impressive as a target.

Source: NASA