Cryogenic tests of new materials now possible

A test, developed by Energie Technologie (DE) for a GSTP activity, will enable new materials to undergo cryogenic testing to validate if they will be able to survive in space.

New materials play a very critical role as we strive to increase launcher and spacecraft performance. Technology improvements of new lightweight materials often rely on the exchange of developments with the automotive and other non-space industries. But test data for how these new materials perform and their properties under cryogenic conditions is rarely available, despite being increasingly required for current and future research, development and applications.

The cryogenic material testing laboratory was constructed, engineered, manufactured, assembled and integrated into the cryogenic test stand infrastructure at ET GmbH in Brunnthal near Munich. Under the activity, ET developed a material test machine capable of testing all relevant cases regardless of experimental conditions, test types, tested material classes and specimen geometries and sizes. Tensile tests and fatigue tests using a common aluminum alloy were successfully conducted, and demonstrated the basic functionality of using the machine to do material testing in liquid hydrogen.

By building this system this way, the team have made it possible that materials can be tested directly with their intended geometry, under the experimental conditions of the intended application. Even components and flight hardware can be tested.

In future, European industry will be able to get already measured data from the ET cryogenic material testing laboratory after approval by ESA.

GSTP activity G627-046QT