Siberians and Belarusians to add durability to Russian spacecraft

Russian and Belarusian researchers have pooled their efforts in a project aimed at developing and ground-testing new high-durability materials for next gen spacecraft.

Russian and Belarusian researchers have pooled their efforts in a project aimed at developing and ground-testing new high-durability and light materials for next gen spacecraft, Nanonewsnet.ru reports. To push the endeavor, Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics (TUSUR) in Siberia and the Lykov Institute of Heat and Mass Exchange of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences are said to have inked a long-term collaboration agreement. Prof. Ivan Khorev from Tomsk, one of the champions of the joint effort, believes there?s ?huge? demand for such new materials. ?Over decades of space exploration we have discarded into outer space tons of waste and garbage. As a result, several Russian, US, French and Chinese spacecraft have come into serious collisions with pieces of refuse at orbital velocities, receiving damages,? the scientists said. The joint work will reportedly be funded by the Union State of Russia and Belarus (a supranational entity established in 1996 in a bid to harmonize the political and economic differences between the two Slavic nations)...