• Question: What is nanotechnology used for in space?

    Asked by hallb005 to Paige on 22 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 22 Mar 2012:

      Hallb Good question!!!!

      Nanotechnology has actually been FOUND in space… we didn’t even put it there!
      http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/feb/HQ_12-057_Spitzer_Buckyballs.html

      According to NASA, buckyballs “are made up of 60 carbon molecules arranged into a hollow sphere, like a soccer ball. Their unusual structure makes them ideal candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth, including superconducting materials, medicines, water purification and armor.” These little suckers have been found in space!!!!!

      NASA: “This exciting result suggests that buckyballs are even more widespread in space than the earlier results showed,” said Mike Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “They may be an important form of carbon, an essential building block for life, throughout the cosmos.”

      Nanotechnology may indeed be important to all life!!! You even have nanomaterials inside of you… some nanomaterials give you cells structure and allow your cells in communicate with one another!

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