July 1988
From The Space Library
A team of NASA scientists from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the Lockheed Company, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, announced the discovery of a new high-temperature superconductor. According to a paper published in Applied Physics Letters, the scientists demonstrated that "samples of yttrium-barium-copper oxide, when mixed with silver oxide, heat treated, and exposed to -320 degrees Fahrenheit, can be suspended below a rare Earth magnet by the magnetic field trapped in the sample." Because superconducting material excludes a magnetic field, by floating a superconductor beneath a magnet, the two materials are firmly attracted to each other, but never touch. According to Palmer N. Peters, of Marshall's Cryogenics Physics Office and a member of the scientific team, the implications of high temperature superconductors for space technology are numerous. "In space, with the elimination of the weight associated with gravity, it should be possible to develop low-vibration, low-friction couplings and bearings," Peters said. The importance of the discovery is that this new material not only has stronger suspension forces but exhibits other unusual magnetic properties: it has demonstrated a lower electrical resistance at normal temperatures, is easier to solder, and is less brittle than other high temperature superconducting materials." (MSFC Release 88-104)
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