this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
110 points (93.0% liked)
Technology
61281 readers
4100 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Kinda sensationalist when we've known about cold welding for as long as the space program at least. Metals bond in a vacuum because there are no oxygen molecules to bond with their surface, when that surface is abraded. It makes for one of the bigger challenges in space, bearings that don't seize up. Along with the even bigger challenge, an air tight bearing that doesn't seize up, or leak.
I thought they had spacebearings fixed by replacing metals with ceramics? The Hubble trying to kill itself by letting all of its gyrorings seize up really gave research a clear goal in that direction. https://www.smbbearings.com/ceramic-bearings-space-applications
Heck, you can almost do cold welding right here. If you have two very, very flat metal parts, and press them together hard, just with your hands, you can get them to stick together.