• Question: What would be the best material to use for a rocket going to Venus?

    Asked by Hanshikaa to Anna, Hayley, Iain, Rebecca on 25 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Iain Bethune

      Iain Bethune answered on 25 Jun 2015:

      There are two parts to this answer:

      1) What is the best material for a rocket for the trip to venus. Here you want something that is structurally strong, but very light (so we don’t need to use so much fuel to launch it). Carbon fibres, graphene, and some aluminium alloys are all good for this.

      2) Something to build your probe out of that would land on Venus (I’m assuming no humans would be making the trip). Here you need something with a very high melting point, something like the nickel alloys used for aeroplane turbine blades, or even a ceramic might be a good option!

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