The unique properties of graphene will allow future space explorations being able to potentially improve the performance of devices of thermal management for cosmic applications, including on the International Space Station in the coming years, as well as protecting the health of astronauts and improving the propulsion of spacecraft.
Astronaut health monitoring
Space agencies and private companies like SpaceX want to send astronauts in long missions both to the Moon and to Mars, being one of the fundamental concerns the health of the astronauts. In space and far from Earth without medical assistance, an astronaut falling ill can lead to a rather complicated diagnosis. At one of the initiative’s annual congresses Graphene Flagship of the European Union held in San Sebastián in 2018, some international experts have already proposed the possibility of monitoring the health of astronauts with graphene sensors.
Chiara Zanardi, researcher at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) stated that they will be necessary graphene sensors that they are able to monitor the health of astronauts continuously without being invasive. Zanardi is developing graphene sensors that in the future can be applied to astronauts’ clothing or skin. Taking into account that graphene is composed of a single sheet of a single atom thick, graphene has a surface of very large contact so it can be used to manufacture highly sensitive devices. At the moment, Zanardi and his team of researchers have been able to create graphene sensors that detect lactic acid, vitamin C and morphine.
Wounds in space
Injury an astronaut can be more complicated and serious than it seems a priori. “Bleeding in microgravity or zero gravity is very difficult to handle,” explains Desiré Pantalone, from the University of Florence (Italy). “Blood floats and can break up into tiny droplets that can go in all directions and obstruct vision. In addition, it is very difficult to clean ”. For this reason it is necessary stop bleeding in the shortest possible time.
Pantalone is participating in a European Space Agency (ESA) research to develop rapid suturing processes that can be applied to space. Although the use of graphene is not part of the research in which Pantalone is immersed, the scientist affirms that graphene can also be useful for the creation of bandages, for medication or for prevent infections, as it has antibacterial properties.
Spaceships
Graphene may be useful in preserving the health of future astronauts traveling into space, but it can also be used to improve spacecraft themselves. Its high thermal conductivity is ideal for dissipating heat from engines, according to Meganne Christian, from the National Research Council of Italy, and Yarjan Abdul Samad, from the University of Cambridge. Both experts work on a system of engine cooling spacecraft that incorporate graphene. If applied successfully, it would go a long way toward building more powerful ships in the future.
On the other hand, the European initiative The Graphene Flagship, in the quest to bring graphene from the laboratory to everyday uses, in 2019 launched a campaign of parabolic flights of weightlessness to test new graphene-based thermal management devices aimed at space applications. “This new parabolic flight experiment is one more step to test graphene in space,” explained Carlo Iorio, principal investigator at the Free University of Brussels, who together with the Graphene Flagship and other institutions are carrying out the campaign. One of the primary objectives is to ensure that these graphene devices can be incorporated into satellites and even on the International Space Station.
An app straight out of science fiction
Finally, and although it is an idea born of science fiction, there is also work on the usefulness of graphene to propel spacecraft through solar sails. “Light is made of photons, which, although they have no mass, can transfer momentum and push an object. This is what we call radiation pressure ”, explains Santiago Cartamil-Bueno, a researcher at the Graphene Flagship. The idea is that solar sails make use of the radiation pressure coming from sunlight. It is not a new idea, since the mathematician Carl Wiley in a science fiction story in 1951. However, until now it has not been possible to build any ship with solar sails as the main source of propulsion. Sails need to be strong as well as light, and this is where graphene comes in.
In conclusion, the Graphene Flagship meetings serve so that scientists and engineers from very different fields have the possibility of establishing links that in the future allow the development of new technological advances in the field of space or any other environment.