MATECH BUILDING C/ZrOC HYPERSONIC AEROSHELLS! MATECH is proud to announce that it has entered into a contract with a prominent defense contractor to build C/ZrOC (pronounced “Carbon Zee Rock”) hypersonic aeroshells for flight testing. Last year, MATECH successfully manufactured 50 kilograms of C/ZrOC leading up to this year’s program. Hypersonic aeroshells can get very hot in flight. The faster they travel, the hotter they become. As we seek to develop faster missiles, materials that can survive higher temperatures become more essential. Deploying an ultra-high-temperature (UHT) aeroshell composite that can meet near-term, mid-term, and long-term mission requirements is now paramount. This hastens future hypersonic and high hypersonic missile development. MATECH’s C/ZrOC UHT Composite is that critically enabling material. MATECH is the only entity in the world that owns this technology. MATECH’s C/ZrOC is an extremely low ablation rate hypersonic material that is low-cost, domestically sourced, highly scale-able, and easy to manufacture. MATECH’s UHT C/ZrOC composite has been tested in multiple government labs up to in excess of 5000F (2760C) temperatures under extreme stagnation pressures. MATECH brought its UHT C/ZrOC composites to pre-qualification status for hypersonic and missile defense applications with MDA support. MATECH C/ZrOC was designed to address the defense and the civilian access-to-space needs of both high performance and ease of manufacture. The cost of manufacturing MATECH’s C/ZrOC parts is equal to or less than heavier and poorer performing metal counterparts. Most conventional ceramic matrix composite (CMC) alternatives typically cost up to 20 times as much as the metals they are intended to replace. Not true of MATECH’s C/ZrOC. All raw materials required in the manufacturing of C/ZrOC are inexpensive, domestically sourced, and mass produced at high volumes (think freight car size deliverables). In short, this C/ZrOC technology isn’t a lab curiosity, but an industrially viable solution immediately ready for production, commercialization, and insertion into state-of-the-art hypersonic missile platforms as well as other equally demanding applications. The critical ablation performance of C/ZrOC is orders of magnitude beyond legacy carbon-carbon composites. In addition to hypersonic aeroshells for defense, MATECH’s robust C/ZrOC thermal protection system is ideal for REUSABLE heat shields on commercial space vehicles. It is strong enough and tough enough to be easily machined and securely attached to the vehicle. Examples of systems where it could make a dramatic improvement include the SpaceX Starship. It could also replace single-use ablative heat shields, like the PICA heat shield on Orion. In addition, MATECH C/ZrOC can take the extreme heat flux of Lunar Return and Mars Return. MATECH’s C/ZrOC technology is now ready and available for license.
Congrats Dr. Ed Pope 👏 -GSP-
Is it RF transparent or does the carbon make it too conductive for radomes/sensor look-through?
Absolutely sensational news 🌟
Outstanding!
Congratulations - a very big deal ...
Well deserved, well done
Special ceramics continue to amaze
Congratulations Ed Pope on coming up with such an innovative UHT material.
Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) / Head of Launch Services - Space-Tech LLC President / CTO Gravitec Inc.
5moCongratulations 🍾🎉👍