Abstract
Imagine a Mars rover of truck sized proportions carrying a crew of astronauts and a significant amount of cargo. The weight of such a rover would surpass that of currently used rovers. Additionally, the rover’s speed must be much faster than the current maximum of 0.18 km/hour. Therefore, such a vehicle would require high performance elastic wheels and a damping system to ensure safety and minimize vibrations. When applications require both elastic and damping properties, the obvious material of choice is rubber. It seems inevitable to use high performance rubber elements in future crewed Mars missions. Besides this, rubber gaskets are needed for spacesuits and habitat sealing. Electric/flexible cables require elastic covers to provide insulation and protection. However, the currently used equipment on Mars does not contain rubber elements. This is because there is still little trust in polymer materials and their reliability in Mars missions in comparison with metals or ceramics. In contrast to widely used metals and ceramics, polymers consist of long macromolecules that are more susceptible to radiation and environmental aging than the strongly bonded atoms of metals or ceramics. Polymer macromolecules undergo various aging reactions, which depend mostly on their chemical structure. There are two major types of aging exhibited by polymers: crosslinking and degradation. In general, crosslinking leads to the formation of additional chemical bonds between macromolecules, and as a result, decreased elasticity of the material; while degradation is based on polymer chain breakage, resulting in decreased mechanical properties. Nevertheless, future crewed Mars missions would highly benefit from polymer materials; for example, synthetic textiles for spacesuit manufacturing. This is expected by NASA, and thus, the Perseverance rover currently carries a test box with polymers that are foreseen to be used in the new Mars spacesuit design. In this light, the development of rubber materials that can be used for spacesuit sealing and other key applications is needed. This task is currently realized within the scope of the Red 4 Mars project
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 55-60 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Rubber world |
| Volume | 270 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2024 |
Keywords
- Rubber
- Mars
- Crystallization
