Houston, September 30, 2025- With the acceleration of human exploration of space, the application of organic silicon materials in rocket engines, spacecraft thermal protection, and space suit sealing continues to deepen due to their extreme temperature resistance, radiation resistance, and lightweight characteristics. The latest report from NASA shows that the use of organic silicon materials in the maintenance of the International Space Station in 2024 has increased by 45% compared to 2020, and it is expected to be first applied to key components of a Mars rover in 2025.


Rocket Engine: Breakthrough in High Temperature Resistant Seals
The combustion chamber temperature of liquid oxygen/methane engines reaches 3500 ℃, and traditional metal seals are prone to oxidation and failure. A new type of "silicon carbide fiber-reinforced silicone rubber" can maintain elasticity at 2000 ℃ and has a leakage rate of less than 1 × 10 ⁻⁹ Pa · m ³/s after 100 thermal cycles. This material has passed the ground test of a commercial aerospace company's engine and is planned for the first orbital launch in 2026.


Spacecraft thermal protection: alternative solution for flexible ceramic tiles
The traditional ceramic thermal protection tile is easy to break, while the density of the "siloxane aerogel composite felt" developed by an enterprise is only 0.2g/cm ³, which can withstand the high temperature of 1200 ℃, and can be bent and folded, which is convenient for installation on the surface of spacecraft. In a certain return satellite experiment, the material reduced the external temperature from 3000 ℃ to 60 ℃ inside the instrument compartment during re-entry into the atmosphere, and the protective effect was better than that of ceramic tiles.


Space suit: intelligent sealing and life support
The temperature difference between day and night on the lunar surface reaches 300 ℃, and there is a risk of micrometeoroid impact. The "self-healing silicone space suit" developed by a certain laboratory embeds microcapsules in the material. When the sealing layer is broken, the capsule ruptures and releases a repair agent to automatically fill the gap. Meanwhile, silicon-based sensors integrated into the fabric can monitor astronauts' body temperature, heart rate, and carbon dioxide concentration in real-time, with a data transmission delay of less than 10ms.


Deep Space Exploration: Materials for Lunar Base Construction
To reduce the cost of transporting building materials from Earth, NASA is researching the synthesis of organic silicon composite materials using lunar soil. Preliminary experiments have shown that mixing lunar soil with siloxane prepolymer and curing it with ultraviolet radiation can form building materials with a strength of up to 20MPa, meeting the structural requirements of lunar bases. If this technology matures, it can reduce the construction cost of lunar bases by 80%.