Polymer Aerogels for Lunar Applications and Beyond

As the Space Community endeavors to reach new heights of exploration, advanced materials for extreme environments are at the forefront of research. One such material would include polymer aerogels. Polyimides are often found in aeronautic and aerospace applications due to their ability to retain their physical and mechanical properties over a wide range of temperatures and in chemically demanding environments. Cross-linked polyimide aerogels retain these same characteristics with added attributes of very low thermal conductivities (~14 mW/m-K), high specific surface areas (~850 m²/g), low dielectric constant (~ 1.1), low densities (0.005-0.15 g/cm³), and high porosities (>85%). Due to these interesting properties, aerogels are ideal as thermal and vibro-acoustic mitigating systems but are by no means limited to these applications. The high porosity and surface area also make aerogels an ideal host system for particle incorporation for applications such as IR scattering filters, chemical sensors, and dust and radiation mitigating materials. Herein, current polymer aerogel research will be discussed as it pertains to Space exploration and applications.