Spaceflight poses many challenges for human beings from an engineering perspective – getting humans off the ground and out of the Earth’s atmosphere is one thing, and then keeping them alive when they are in an area that they were not designed to be able to physically withstand was a tall order.
For those that were tasked with creating a craft and also the suits that would be able to fulfil this task, there were lots of things to consider – a seemingly never-ending list. Many modern materials and ideas were used to get these feats of engineering turned from ideas into real things that could certainly be used in order to allow human beings to explore beyond the planet.
Where rubber came from
One of the materials that proved invaluable to the designers of these systems was rubber. Natural rubber was first used by the people native to the South American region where the trees that provided the material grew – the Hevea Brasiliensis. This fantastic tree could be bored into, and the sap was collected – a technique known as rubber tapping. It could then be used to form a range of different objects.
Of course once this material was discovered by explorers and settlers, rubber became something that was in demand all over the world, and as engineering became more and more advanced, rubber became a key part in building some of the machines that helped to power the modern world.
During the 20th Century, synthetic rubbers were created in laboratories, such as silicone for example – these then went on to be incredibly useful as humans sought to explore the skies beyond planet Earth.
Why rubber works so well in space
There are many properties that make rubber useful – the ability that it has to withstand huge variations in temperature makes it well suited to supporting space flight, where temperatures really are extreme.
It is also very good for forming seals, which then are used to maintain the pressure and oxygen levels inside the craft, keeping the astronauts alive and away from the deadly atmosphere outside. Places like this rubber moulding company www.meadex.co.uk/rubber-moulding/ form rubber into shapes which then can go and do jobs like this in aerospace engineering. Even to this day, NASA’s newest rocket Artemis, still relies on rubber to do many important jobs.
Summary
This article explains why rubber has been important to human spaceflight. It traces natural rubber back to techniques developed in South America using sap from the Hevea Brasiliensis tree, and describes how synthetic rubbers like silicone were later developed in laboratories. It explains that rubber can withstand extreme temperatures and form reliable seals, and is still used on NASA’s newest rocket today.
Questions this article raises
- Are there newer materials replacing rubber for some of these spaceflight uses?
- How does rubber cope with the vacuum of space compared with extreme heat?
- How is rubber tapping done today compared with the traditional method?
