No Heat Relief on Venus: Research Robots with Scandium Oxide Withstand Extreme Temperatures
A “hot” destination for space explorers is Venus, with its surface previously studied almost exclusively via radar. Extreme temperatures destroy landing equipment after just a few hours or days. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have now developed a memory system that could enable research robots to “survive” the immense heat and explore the planet.
Flash Memory Reaches Its Limits at Temperatures Above 200°C
PC owners know the problem: a hot summer day, the computer’s cooling fails, and performance drops and crashes follow. While Earth-based computers struggle with outside temperatures around 27 to 33°C, research robots on Venus must be able to operate without errors even at 437°C to 497°C. Even NAND flash memory, which can be operated up to a temperature of 200°C, reaches its limits here. This is not the case for the latest ferroelectric memory developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.
Still Operational at 600°C Thanks to Scandium Oxide
A research paper recently published in the scientific journal Nature describes this memory made of aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN), which is also being researched by the Fraunhofer Institute, among others. It is designed to store data permanently and remain operational even at 600°C. During experiments, the memory was able to perform one million read cycles for a maximum period of 60 hours. At the same time, this type of memory is compatible with silicon carbide semiconductors, which are currently used for most high-temperature computing applications. This makes it suitable for use in many applications, such as sensors and jet aircraft.
There Is a Lot of Money in Space Travel
Space travel has always been a prestigious priority for many governments worldwide. Accordingly, large sums of money are invested. Just as it was once about the first moon landing, today nations could compete to be the first to explore Venus. Whoever wins the race, scandium oxide is almost certainly on board.
Narrow Window of Opportunity for Scandium Oxide Buyers
Despite the export controls announced by China starting October 1, 2024, scandium oxide is currently very affordable. This is unlikely to remain the case, making this the ideal window for an investment that is expected to pay off in the medium to long term.