Nanotechnology in aerospace

Aerospace “The importance of the space sector can be emphasized by the number of spacecrafts launched. In the period from 1957 till 2005, 6376 spacecraft have been launched at an average of 133 per year. The has been a decrease in the number of spacecrafts launched in the recent years with 78 launched in 2005. Of the 6378 launches, 56.8% were military spacecrafts and 43.2 were civilian. 245 manned missions have been launched in this period. 1674 communication or weather satellites were also launched. The remaining spacecraft launches has been exploration missions.”

satellites for Nanoscale will increasingly have an impact on numerous commercial, military and space aero-applications. I covered nano military applications in a column last year and will cover that subject again sometime later this year. I would like to review non-military aerospace applications here.

CANEUS is described as the world's foremost international conference on Micro-Nano-Technology (MNT) development for aerospace applications. According to its webpage , the conference deals with the challenges of rapidly and efficiently transitioning aerospace MNT development from a low technology-readiness-level (TRL) to system-level implementations based on an integrated "cradle-to-grave" approach.

The webpage describes CANEUS stakeholders as:
the low-TRL research and development community;
the mid- and high-TRL system developer community;
end-users from the aerospace and defense sectors;
the private investment community, consisting of venture capitalists and investors;
government investors in CANEUS member countries;
government policy makers for cross-border collaborations;and
scientists, engineers, program managers, investors and policy-makers from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, representing these MNT stakeholder communities.

The conference covers such topics as:
emerging MNT concepts (low TRL);
MNT system development (mid TRL);
mature systems and dub-dystems (high TRL);
end-user needs and perspectives);
investment perspectives and roadmaps; and
governmental policies affecting coordinated, joint international development of aerospace MNT.

Nanowerk reported recently that CANEUS has launched a "pre-seed" fund to provide partial funding for system-level development projects recommended by the CANEUS Board. Contributors gain privileged access to downstream investment opportunities. The fund description is posted on the CANEUS website. A NATO lecture series has been developed on nanotechnology aerospace applications. Interestingly, a paper published in 1999 covered the application of molecular nanotechnology in aerospace.

The Open-Site free internet encyclopedia has a write-up about the purpose, needs, problems and solutions of nanotechnology research for aerospace.

The most complete publicly available report on nanotechnology applications in non-military aerospace was published recently by the Nanoforum. It says this Nanotechnology in Aerospace report “presents a concise introduction and contribution to the expert debate on trends in nanomaterials and nanotechnologies for applications in the civil aeronautics and space sectors in Europe and explicitly excludes any military R&D and applications.”