Need a material for my space-rocket !

Ground up old airplanes might be light enough.

Or, ground up old ridid airships.

There is a large airfield in Arizona where there are thousands of old airplaines and you may be able to get some cheaply.

Blast Off!

Jim

Use carbon-carbon for your rocket-rocket.

Nothing is too heavy. You just need enough fuel and oxidizer.

Dr.K

Unobtainium nanotubes.

Karl-Hugo:

Right now equiatomic intermetallic compounds are extremely fashionable. Why not try the high melting point niobium-columbium alloy, NbCb?

Pittsburgh Pete

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This is for writing a school paper, I would guess?

Traditionally, space rockets have used aluminum. Aluminum is more lightweight per unit volume than steel, but not as strong. Using a sufficiently large thickness of aluminum for strength requirements results in higher overall stiffness (relative to modulus and cube of thickness), which is good for space applications. Different alloys of aluminum have different strengths; some alloys reach strengths (UTS - ultimate tensile strength) of 70,000 psi.

Even though some modern plastics provide superior stiffness and strength per unit mass than aluminum, aluminum is still used in modern space programs because of its excellent heat conducting properties. There are many systems on a space vehicle which generate heat, and in the absence of air there is no place for that heat to go except into the body of the vehicle itself. If heat does not get transmitted away effectively, heat will build up and cause problems. By making the outer hull of the vehicle aluminum, and giving all components a good thermal connection to the hull, a large radiating surface area is provided for heat dissipation.

You could try making a vehicle from high-strength, low-density plastics, and create a system of heat pumps throughout to take care of the heat problem (maybe terminating at a heat exchanger which vents gas to carry the heat energy away from the vehicle) but I suspect that might actually increase the overall mass of the vehicle.

To learn more about aluminum alloys and plastics, please consult the MaterialWeb database:

-- TTK

Do you have a miracle engine in the garage? Then the rocket ship part can be made of anything you want. Make it out of wood and wear a space suit. Do you want to return to earth? Then I'd use titanium framing. Does it need to be laser shielded? Then add a coating of pyrolitic graphite to the skin. If you have the miracle engine then you can do powered reentry, otherwise you're going to need an ablative heat shield. Don't make the same mistake nasa made with all those intricate tiles on the shuttle. Make it one big disposable thick disc of pyrolized phenolic resin...