A rover on the moon has metal wheels that can bend around rocky obstacles and then form back into their original shape. On earth, surgeons install small mesh tubes that can dilate the blood vessels of a heart patient on their own, without mechanical inputs or wires to help.
These shape-shifting functions are due to a bizarre type of metal called nitinol, a so-called shape-metal alloy that can be trained to remember its own shape. The decades-old materials have become increasingly common in a wide variety of everyday applications. And in the next decade, the metal will face its most challenging application: a monster-return mission to Mars.
Nitinol, made from nickel and titanium, works its magic through heat. To ‘practice’ a nitinol paper clip, for example, heat it to 500 degrees Celsius in its desired shape and then splash it in cold water. Bend it out of the mold, then place the same heat source back in, and the metal will fall back into its original shape.
The temperature that causes the transformation of nitinol depends on the fine-tuned ratio of nickel to titanium. Engineers can adapt the metal to suit a wide range of conditions, making it an important tool in places where complex mechanics do not fit, such as the blood vessels that surround a human heart or a hinge that places a solar panel by responding to the sun’s response. heat.
The edge spoke with engineers from NASA’s Glenn Research Center to see how nitinol would play a role in a mission to retrieve humanity’s first case of pristine Martian soil samples – the second leg of a Mars mission led by NASA and the European Space Agency. Watch the video above to see how and to see nitinol in action. (We promise it is not CGI.)