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Innovation

UAH researcher patents green carbon fiber process for rocket nozzles

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – A professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville is pioneering a new technology that could provide a more environmentally friendly path to explore space.

William Kaukler, an associate research professor at UAH’s Rotorcraft Systems Engineering and Simulation Center, has been awarded a patent for a green process he developed that produces the carbon fiber used in ablative rocket nozzles and heat shields.

Kaukler’s work could interest NASA, which has a dwindling supply of cellulose rayon fiber, after the old way to manufacture it ceased in the 1990s due to hazardous byproducts.

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Entrepreneurship

Alabama Innovation Fund provides boost for UNA UX center

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