We’ve started experimenting with a new material, paper honeycomb panels. It’s light, very stiff, strong and cheap. We plan on using it as an alternative to foam for a core material in carbon structures. We also going to try it out for balloon interface panels for the next Dark Sky Station and Ascender.
As a first test it’s being used a the instrument deck on Away 46. That will give us a chance to see how it handles extreme cold and vacuum. The deck ended up the same weight as our existing carbon and foam deck. However it took only a fraction of the time to make and a quarter of the cost.
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