Aerogels Insulate Missions and Consumer Products

Aspen Aerogels Inc., of Northborough, Massachusetts, an independent company spun off from Aspen Systems Inc., rose to the challenge of creating a robust, flexible form of aerogel by working with NASA through a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with Kennedy. That contract led to further partnerships for the development of thermal insulation materials, manufacturing processes, and new test methods. This collaboration over many years was a pivotal part for the founding of NASA's Cryogenics Test Laboratory.

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00:00:02 1931 the Empire State Building first opened its doors to the public weighing in at 365,000 tons this heavy concrete and steel structure is a testament to American Ingenuity that same year a scientist in California invented the world's lightest solid structure one that barely weighed more than the air surrounding it 1,000 times less dense

00:00:25 than glass aerogels were quickly recognized as the world's most effective ating material unfortunately the material was too brittle and hard to handle in large pieces for most practical uses on top of that producing aerogel was expensive and timec consuming these technical challenges kept the miracle substance confined to specialized Laboratories for most of the

00:00:47 20th century in the early 1990s NASA's Johnson and Kennedy Space centers teamed up with Aspen systems of maror Massachusetts through the small business Innovation research or sbir program their challenge was to find ways to improve the process of producing aerogel insulation products NASA knew that a flexible and durable form of aerogel

00:01:09 insulation would have great potential for spacecraft thermal Protection Systems liquid oxygen tanks even for advanced space suits for future astronauts traveling to Mars if you can uh meet the durability the environmental safety requirements the thermal requirements uh for a space suit insulation in a product that would be affordable than what you've just

00:01:33 described as probably the best insulation that the world would have funded with Awards through NASA's small business Innovation research or sbir program Aspen found a way to increase the speed of production of aroel infused materials tfold seeing commercial opportunities Aspen systems formed Aspen aerogels to develop and Market the new products as a result of additional

00:01:57 Partnerships through the sbir program with NASA's John Kennedy Marshall Langley Glenn and JPL the technology breakthroughs continue the company's flexible and easy to use products now include several classes of inexpensive blankets that incorporate a thin layer of aerrow gel embedded directly into the Fabrics these blankets are strong durable and up to six times as effective

00:02:20 as any other flexible insulation on the market and so by refining our products to meet the very stringent requirements of NASA we are able to get a head start on making some something that the rest of the world would find very appealing the space agency now uses aerogel products for everything from fuel storage to spacecraft since the blankets can be handled and installed like any

00:02:41 other thermal or acoustic insulation Aspen Aero gel's Products are making their way into hundreds of down-to-earth applications for other customers it's been used in uh oil exploration it's been used in clothing it's been used in mountaineering it's been used in diving suits uh it's been used in shoe sols and satellites and uh you name it as Aspen's products are being used everywhere from

00:03:07 the bottom of the ocean to the top of Mount Everest aerogel technology is taking off and soaring higher than even the tallest skyscrapers