Earth & Space
Why Metal Welds Itself in Space
Touch two clean metal blocks together in the vacuum of space and they fuse into one — no heat, no glue. Zoom to the atoms to meet the electron sea, the invisible oxide skin that stops it on Earth, and the day it nearly crippled a Jupiter probe.
Why Metal Welds Itself in Space
COLD WELDING · IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE
Two clean metal blocks touch in space — and simply become one.
In space, two clean metal blocks can touch and fuse into one — with no heat or glue. It’s called cold welding.
Concepts you just met
Cold WeldingMetallic BondingElectron SeaOxide LayerVacuumSpacecraft Engineering