ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | JULY/AUGUST 2024 28 experimental divide, particularly under the collaborative team model. Tracing the results of US-COMP’s MGI-style approach to CNT composite development from 2018 to 2022 reveals a sudden, drastic rise in materials performance after the transition into the collaborative team structure (Fig. 6). It is unlikely that a CNT composite material with the highest mechanical properties shown here could have been developed in only five years without a flexible and evolving team structure, balancing of stakeholder priorities, consistent and frequent communication, active leadership involvement, and a diverse student collaboration environment. Of course, a large investment from the federal government— in this case a NASA STRI—focusing on quantified metrics that provided a means for measuring advances toward the common goal was necessary to establish the program. Thus, the inexorable climb toward ever higher aerospace realms continues. The quest for going further than ever before demands ever greater materials performance, which itself requires sustained, hardworking, and intelligent endeavors. Utilizing all available tools, especially those borrowed from the MGI framework, will allow the small step of manned missions to Mars to become the more giant leap of an economically and technologically sustainable operation. And who knows what new innovative heights will follow in both deep space and the materials world.~AM&P Acknowledgments: The author appreciates the contributions of Dr. Gregory M. Odegard of Michigan Technological University to this work. For more information: Benjamin Huebner, materials engineer, United States Air Force, Macon, GA, huebner.ben@ gmail.com. References 1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017, Sec. 432(b)(1). 2. NASA’s Deep Space Exploration Plans, www.nasa.gov. 3. https://us-comp.com/about. 4. https://www.mgi.gov/. 5. C.E. Evers, et al., Scalable High Tensile Modulus Composite Laminates Using Continuous Carbon Nanotube Yarns for Aerospace Applications, ACS Appl. Nano Mater., 6(13), p 11260-11268, 2023. 6. J.G. Park, et al., Gamma-ray Irradiation to Achieve High Tensile Performance of Unidirectional CNT Yarn Laminates, Carbon, 216, p 118530, 2024. 7. G.M. Odegard, et al., A Successful Strategy for MGI-inspired Research, MRS Bulletin, 48, p 434-438, 2023. Fig. 6 — Specific property map for aerospace materials, including CNT yarn unidirectional composites from US-COMP (denoted by year). The graph also includes state-of-the-art unidirectional CFRP composites (denoted by carbon fiber used) and engineering metal alloys[7]. GET ENGAGED, GET INVOLVED, GET CONNECTED The ASM Sustainable Materials Engineering Committee meets regularly to connect and communicate about their shared interest in green materials and processes. For more information, contact staff liaison Scott Henry, scott. henry@asminternational.org.
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