YEREVAN. – With a new method, Armenian chemists have created a thermoregulation coating for spacecrafts; and the basis for this coating is willemite, which is a zinc silicate mineral .

Volodya Baghramyan, a researcher at the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that having discovered their designs with such materials, NASA specialists had contacted the institute.

Willemite coating is in high demand, since it reflects about 95 percent of the solar rays. And the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of Armenia has managed to significantly reduce its synthesis temperature, and therefore save energy when creating this coating.

The connecting elements for this coating were selected from the mountain minerals that are common in Armenia.

A Space Museum opened Saturday, November 28, at a newly-established technopark in Nor Nork district of Yerevan.

The museum features exclusive samples of early space research, created by Armenian specialists, including a genuine landing capsule and other devices that have travelled to space, a replica of Orion-2 space observatory that has been showcased at EXPO 2000 in Hannover.

Also displayed at the museum are early space research and space flight-related documents, handwritten papers belonging to Soviet cosmonauts who have passed pre-flight training in Armenia, designers of Vostok, Soyuz spacecraft, as well as to NASA astronauts and designers of American spacecraft.

A valuable document exhibited at the museum is a handwritten draft article co-authored by academician Grigor Gurzadyan and Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, a German-American physicist who has played a key role in the creation of first nuclear bombs.

Related links:

Space Museum website

Armenia chemists use new method to create coating that protects from overheating in space

Yerevan: Space Museum opens in Armenia’s capital