ABSTRACT
The fundamental properties of low temperature materials have garnered greater interest with the advent of space exploration. Space technology must survive ¤uctuations and lows in temperature rarely encountered on Earth. Of deeper scienti†c interest and continuing mystery is the range of new thermodynamic properties and rheologies (e.g., elasticity, tensile strength, viscosity) of planetary materials encountered on the Moon and Mars, comets, and a multitude of icy worlds. Properties of industrial metals and plastics have been discussed in recent chapters published elsewhere [Van Sciver, 2012], including low temperature heat capacity, thermal contraction, electrical and thermal conductivity, magneto-resistance in metals, and solid-liquid phase changes [Mehling and Cabeza, 2008]. This chapter describes materials and their relevant properties, which we are just beginning to understand in the detail that future exploration requires. It ends with a brief note about applications of piezoelectric materials at low temperatures.
