Experts here at NASA's Langley Research Center point to the physical fact: It's a material world after all. These scientists are developing new, experimental materials that in the future could help protect astronauts and spacecraft from the harsh, often unpredictable world of deep space.

Scientists believe that the development of new super-light materials could allow for the practical use of solar sails. In theory, a spaceship should be able to propel itself using nothing but the pressure of light, which consists of particles called photons.

"Most people take materials for granted," said Sheila Thibeault, a Langley senior materials research engineer. "If you are a contractor who builds houses, you go to the lumberyard. A seamstress making a dress goes to the fabric store," she said. But these new supermaterials being developed for space are simply improved polymers that are used in common items, like clothing and upholstery.

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"The properties of a material come from chemical structure. We see how we can make a material more robust for whatever task. Making materials work in extreme temperatures and the other harsh factors of space is critical," Thibeault told SPACE.com.

The testing of space-rated materials on Earth has its drawbacks.

Materials can be subjected in ground chambers to such things as vacuum, radiation and radical temperature swings. "But we don't have a facility that you can simulate everything at once. So we have to put things into space," Thibeault said.

Langley has long had an interest in how materials react to the space environment.

Carbon nanotubes and buckyballs may be the building material for future spacecraft.

The NASA center developed and managed the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) program. LDEF was the first experiment-carrying spacecraft that was flown in space, retrieved and then returned to Earth.

Shuttle-snagged in January 1990 and brought home for analysis, LDEF had circled Earth for more than five and a half years. It yielded a bonanza of data on how various materials stand-up to space exposure.

"One big surprise to a lot of people was how hazardous atomic oxygen turned out to be in low Earth orbit," Thibeault said.

The problem stems from reactive oxygen atoms attaching themselves to and attacking carbon atoms in a polymer, which weakens the material.

"It's like a cavity in a tooth. It starts out as a pit, then gets bigger as it wears away the tooth's surface. Then you end up with a cavity," she said.

New polymeric materials, Thibeault said, are now being developed at Langley that are far more resistant to the erosive effects of atomic oxygen.

Thibeault and her colleagues are currently hard at work on the Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE).

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The hoard of materials include those that are atomic-oxygen resistant, as well as samples that will weather a beating from ultraviolet radiation, or that can survive doses of other radiation types.

Another two MISSE suitcases are to piggyback on the station during a later mission and will battle the effects of space weather for three years.

"You can imagine such a thin sail developing a hole, tear or rip. It can propagate out and that would be a disaster. So we're looking at ways to stop a rip," the Langley engineer said.

Nanometer-sized nanotubes imbedded in polymers would not only add strength to the sail, but also provide a rip-stop feature, Thibeault said.

"The heat from the shock wave of the impacting object causes the material to essentially melt...and it melts back into itself," Thibeault said.

The materials scientists at Langley have a vision to produce multifunctional materials. Not only do they have to be tough, they must be lightweight as well. And these miracle materials would do everything: from retarding nasty bouts with atomic oxygen and the Sun's rays, thwart dangerous doses of radiation and defy object impacts.

"Somehow we've got to put all this together and come up with materials that can perform more than one function," Thibeault said.

Lead-lined spacecraft walls are not the ideal solution, she said. For one, that would be far too heavy.

Furthermore, as the water is consumed, and food is eaten, the resulting reservoir of both urine and solid waste may prove perfect in replenishing the shielding material, Thibeault said.

"I know it's not very poetic. But you do have this input-output kind of thing."