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.

