In the video above, Sophia Yang, a research scientist at HRL Laboratories (a joint Boeing venture), explains that the microlattice could be used in something like the egg drop challenge, to protect an egg being dropped from 25 storeys with very little material required. Yang uses an example of dropping an egg off a 25-story building, and that would need to be wrapped in several feet of bubble wrap to keep from breaking.
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Boeing says its work on the material is nearly complete, and hopes to put it to use one day in airplanes, as well as cars and the structural components of other objects. Engineers intend to use the microlattice for plane interiors in places such as side panels, overhead cabins, or walkway areas.
Originally developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the novel material could be used for battery electrodes, catalyst supports, and acoustic, vibration or shock energy damping.
The study was conducted at the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology.
These new materials can enable NASA to reduce the mass of spacecraft for deep space exploration by 40 percent and are necessary for the journey to Mars and beyond. She compares the material to bone, whereby the outside of the bone is rigid while the inside is mostly hollow, creating an open-cellular structure which means it’s remarkably strong as well as extremely lightweight.
Attaching thin, stiff facesheets to the top and bottom surfaces of a relatively thick, lightweight core makes such structures.
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The microlattice design was introduced a few years ago, but Boeing and HRL are looking into how it could be applied to structures now.
