What metal would be best for building a spaceship?

Question

An interplanetary one. Aluminum? How would you put it all together to withstand extreme conditions in space?

Answer 1

Why does it have to be metal?  I was thinking of a ceramic, like the black tiles under the space shuttle.  Also, since water does so well to cool nuclear reactors, maybe a good layer of water would work well to block intersteller radiation too.  

To answer your question, why not gold?  Like lead, gold is very dense so it blocks radiation and particles pretty well.

Answer 2

past spacecraft were made primarily of aluminum, with titanium and steel where needed.

there are lots of composites available now, with all sorts of interesting properties. i've made things with carbon fibre and glare myself. you can get titanium if you want, but it's nasty to work with bcuz it's so hard.

as always, have a look at the nasa mission reports books. particularly the ones on mars and deep space missions.

Answer 3

One of the big problems with space travel is the radiation that's in space. On Earth, our atmosphere protects us from radiation. In space, however, astronauts need protection against harmful rays.

You might think that the metal on a spaceship is the answer. But, metals are the worst for shielding against very dangerous space rays. These rays are made of little pieces called ions. At very high speeds, the ions can be like little cannon balls, streaking through space. When these little cannon balls hit metals, they can break an atom and cause another type of ray to form. These new rays can be worse than the radiation the metal skins were supposed to stop.

Answer 4

Material selection is part of the engineering process, so it is done during the design phase. Aluminum is the lightest easily obtainable metallic material and so is favored to decrease launch weight, which is critical. Titanium is also light in weight and is much stronger, so it may be needed in some areas where structural loads are higher. Carbon composites are lighter than aluminum and can provide benefits in insulation and conductivity, but they can end up actually adding weight if they are used in areas that require structural load carrying capability - because of the laminar nature of their structure. In general, the highest loads on a spacecraft occur during launch and re-entry. The conditions in space are limited to thermal growth issues and pressure chamber stuff; these are not insignificant , but they are less severe than launch.

Answer 5

Unobtainium.  Aircraft duralumin may be the next best.

Answer 6

Lead.

Answer 7

cardboard & superglue.

trust me, i've literally just made a rocket using these materials, it uses sugar based propellant and it's going to explode on the launch pad tomorrow probably.

Answer 8

With ceramic insulating materials designed to protect it from this heat and cold. The materials include:

-Reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) on the wing surfaces and underside

-High-temperature black surface insulation tiles on the upper forward fuselage and around the windows

-White Nomex blankets on the upper payload bay doors, portions of the upper wing and mid/aft fuselage

-Low-temperature white surface tiles on the remaining areas

These materials are designed to absorb large quantities of heat without increasing their temperature very much.

Answer 9

No Titanium is a much better choice.

Answer 10

I'm not much of a science head but I always thought they used titanium for spacecraft.  I just had a look on google and found this though:

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2112...

So it looks like they're branching out a bit in terms of materials. Hope that helps.

Answer 11

titanium

Answer 12

scientists have proved that the only thing which survives after a plane crash is a little doll. so the best way to build a spacecraft is to use the same stuff as that