AEROGEL - 'The ultimate beer cooler'

[T12]

'The ultimate beer cooler' insulates rover


Paul Hoversten. USA Today. Arlington: Jul 8, 1997. pg. 08.A

PASADENA, Calif. -- An amazing lightweight insulation is keeping NASA's little Sojourner rover warm during sub-freezing nights on Mars.

The material is a porous foam-like substance called aerogel that is 99.8% air. Developed in the 1930s [What, The 30's?] at Stanford University, aerogel has been an experimental substance for the past six decades. It was tested on the space shuttle in the 1980s and is making its debut in ...
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/12 ... S&FMTS=FT& date=Jul+8,+1997&author=Paul+Hoversten&desc=%27The+ultimate+beer+cooler%27+insul ates+rover


--- Aerogel Capabilities---

Aerogel is not like conventional foams, but is a special porous material with extreme microporosity on a micron scale. It is composed
of individual features only a few nanometers in size. These are linked in a highly porous dendritic-like structure.

[Jpg]Crayons On Aerogel Over A Flame This exotic substance has many unusual properties, such as low
thermal conductivity, refractive index and sound speed - in addition to its exceptional ability to capture fast moving dust. Aerogel is made by high temperature and pressure-critical-point drying of a gel composed of colloidal silica structural units filled with solvents.

Aerogel was prepared and flight qualified at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL also produced aerogel for the Mars Pathfinder and Stardust missions, which possesses well-controlled properties and purity. This particular JPL-made silica aerogel approaches the density of air. It is strong and easily survives launch and space environments. JPL aerogel capture experiments have flown previously and been recovered on Shuttle flights, Spacelab II and Eureca.
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/aerogel.html

--- Manufacturing ---

[ASPEN AEROGELS, INC.]

Aspen Aerogels, Inc. is the global leader in Aerogel technology. Aerogels are nanoporous, light weight materials that exhibit extraordinarily low thermal and acoustic conductivity. Aerogels have the highest thermal insulation value, the highest specific surface
area, the lowest density, the lowest speed of sound, the lowest refractive index, and the lowest dielectric constant of all solid materials. These properties give aerogels multiple applications in a wide range of consumer, commercial, and military markets.

Aspen manufactures a variety of forms of aerogel including our revolutionary flexible blanket, powder, beads, and clear monolithic sheets.

Aspen Aerogels is a spin-off company of Aspen Systems, Inc. : a small business, established in 1984, which performs research, development
and engineering for government and commercial clients with the goal of developing high performance products and technologies. Aspen
Aerogels was formed in early 2001 to further develop and commercialize the aerogel technology begun by Aspen Systems.

To date, Aerogels have not been widely commercialized due to very high production costs and initial capital investment. In March 1999,
Aspen invented a low cost, high speed manufacturing process for aerogels for which the company received the prestigious 1999 SBIR
(Small Business Innovation Research) Technology of the Year Award in Manufacturing/Materials. The new process requires only a small fraction of the capital investment required for conventional aerogel production and provides dramatic reductions in manufacturing costs.

Using a small-scale production facility located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Aspen Aerogels is currently selling various aerogel products to customers in the aerospace, apparel, cryogenics, and technical insulation markets. The company is preparing for mass- production of aerogels and believes its "disruptive technology" will
allow for entrance into multiple global markets.
http://www.aerogel.com

According to the information given here, one gram of quartz could be unfolded to insulate a five bedroom home, yet the properties aside from being flame & heat resistant, this stuff would enable you to provide heat to your entire home with a single candle stick, (did I hear that right?)
I'll bet they could get more business from the world wide home builder associations!

[Laird]

Thank you for locating all the applications for the goo gel ... it sure got me into trouble posting back during the summer of 1997.

Its feather light ... totally clear insulating material.

[T12]

Can you elaborate about what happened to you during the summer of 1997? I just don't understand how your liberties to the freedom of speech and information act, could have dealt you a bad card just for commenting on this subject, there must be more to this that I am mising here, care to tell us more?

[Dude111]

Developed in the 1930s [What, The 30's?] at Stanford University, aerogel has been an experimental substance for the past six decades

Im not @ all surprised!!!!

Stuff was MUCH MORE TECHINALLY ADVANCED FROM THE 30s AND EARLIER!! (Thats apparent from some of the stuff that has been found 100s of years ago)