LIST and ESA join forces to revolutionize the launch phases of spacecraft

To bring a new dimension to the launch phases of spacecraft, nothing less: this is what could allow supercapacities.

These are electricity storage technologies that, due to their low weight and non-flammability, are particularly relevant for space applications. However, the availability of supercapacitors with very high storage potential per unit mass requires the development of very high performance electrodes.

Under the framework agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is studying the integration of graphene on commercial copper foil in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept of flexible supercapacitors of low weight.

The graphene is a bi-dimensional monofilament of carbon atoms, extracted for the first time in 2004 alone, which earned the Nobel Prize to the physicists who made this discovery.

Coordinated by Renaud Leturcq, the first demonstrators are expected by the end of 2017.

LIST, thanks to the technical and financial support of the ESA, could well write a new chapter in the common history of Luxembourg and the conquest of space.

ESA, for its part, is hoping for much of this activity, which, by confirming graphene as a technological breakthrough for electrodes of supercapacitors, could benefit the various European manufacturers of these components with which the Agency pursues parallel activities.