starship-design: Starship Engineering

["L. Clayton Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

Kyle was asking for something new that actually related to SSD. Does anyone
know anything about progress in materials science regarding foamed metals? I
know I heard on a news program several months ago that they had made some of
these panels here on Earth (not in zero-G) and that they were much lighter
and stronger than conventional metal panels.

It seems that this is one of the things we need in order to build a
starship. It would increase structural strength while decreasing vehicle
mass and that has to be a good thing. I assume the ones that have been made
already were aluminum or aluminum alloy.

Lee Parker

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What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth?  Judging from realistic
simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can
assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry