I'm attempting to write a story set in Eric Flint's 1632 universe
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. In the story, my characters are students who areworking on part of a rocketry project. As they design their new
rocket, they find that the material they are using, steel, is too heavy
for the design and they have to find something lighter.
Now, the obvious answer to this question would be aluminum. But the
canon states that the nation they are in can't produce aluminum from
bauxite ore yet. I think I found a way around this.
There should be plenty of aluminum already in the universe - in the
form of cans and foil (both the Reynolds Wrap type and foil pans). My
question is this - can aluminum from cans (alloys 3004 and 5182) and
foil be melted down and combined with other metals to form a new alloy
that would be suitable for use in unguided rockets?
Thank you in advance.