Ancient dye protect spacecraft

The dye found in cave paintings will be used to increase the heat barrier to the heat from the sun.

The European Aviation Agency (ESA) solar orbit, scheduled to be launched in 2017, will carry out the mission of capturing the high resolution of the sun at a distance of 42 million kilometers, just a little more than 1/3 Earth distance - the sun.

At such a close distance, the spacecraft will experience 13 times more heat than on Earth, as well as temperatures up to 515 degrees C.

ESA solar orbit - (Photo: ESA)

Therefore, ESA is forced to find appropriate materials to protect the spacecraft against such harsh conditions.

'We soon identified the requirements for heat shields,' says Space.com, quoted by material technology expert Andrew Norman of ESA.

To absorb sunlight, then convert to infrared and push back into the space, spacecraft surface coating materials need to constantly maintain 'thermal-optical' characteristics, which means it can be kept. uniform color, even facing the sun over the years.

In addition, the heat shield must also satisfy the condition of no material discharge during the whole process, in order to avoid the risk of disturbing the sensitive equipment of the solar orbit.

Based on the results of the dye-color analysis of the ancient people painted on caves in caves, the Irish company Enbio invented a material called Solar Black , which is graphite burned from bone.

Experts remove the oxide layer on the surface of metals such as titanium, aluminum and stainless steel, and replace it with Solar Black when making spacecraft shells.