Sobre o evento:
Aerospace exploration pushes materials to their limits. From the scorching heat inside turbine engines to the extreme environments encountered in space, NASA relies on materials that remain stable, strong, and chemically resilient at temperatures exceeding 2000–3000 K. This seminar highlights how high temperature chemistry enables the discovery and design of these mission critical materials.
We explore three classes of advanced ceramics and carbides, rare earth silicates, uranium-zirconium carbide solid solutions, and magnetoplumbite hexaaluminates, each offering unique advantages for propulsion, power systems, and protective coatings. Through high temperature calorimetry, thermochemical modeling, and first principles simulations, NASA researchers uncover how atomic bonding, crystal structure, and electronic configuration govern stability under extreme thermal and chemical conditions.
These insights directly support NASA’s broader mission: developing more efficient engines, enabling nuclear propulsion, protecting spacecraft surfaces, and extending the lifetime of critical components. By connecting fundamental thermodynamics with real aerospace challenges, this seminar shows how high temperature chemistry accelerates materials innovation and expands the possibilities for future human and robotic exploration.
Minibiografia do palestrante:
Gustavo Costa, Ph.D., is a research scientist at NASA’s Glenn Research Center whose work centers on the thermochemistry and stability of materials exposed to extreme environments, from the hot sections of jet engines to nuclear propulsion systems and planetary atmospheres. With a career spanning NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the University of California, Davis, he has authored more than 40 peer reviewed publications on high temperature ceramics, carbides, silicates, and planetary materials. His research combines advanced calorimetry, Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry, materials synthesis, and computational thermodynamics to support next generation aerospace technologies, including environmental barrier coatings, nuclear thermal propulsion fuels, and materials for planetary exploration. Dr. Costa has received multiple NASA awards for scientific excellence, contributed to major facilities such as the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig, and serves as an adjunct professor at the materials science & engineering department at Lehigh University, where he teaches and mentors the next generation of materials scientists.
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