Some of the cutting-edge technological developments that are made possible by advanced ceramics are truly breathtaking. Take aerospace applications, for example. NASA is planning a mission to Mars in 2020, which will include a device designed to determine if oxygen can be produced in-situ to facilitate a future manned mission to the Red Planet. Advanced ceramics could prove to be a key component to the success of the program.

“The inherent durability of a scandia-stabilized zirconia electrolyte comes from its ceramic nature,” write Joseph Hartvigsen, S. Elangovan and Jessica Elwell of Ceramatec, a CoorsTek company. “As with most ceramics, the ScSZ is very hard and resists wear better than most metals. These properties are vital for the mission, as the secondary nature of the project is to analyze how the system stands up to surface operations in the severe Martian environment.” Read more about this out-of-this-world project in this issue.

Did pioneers of advanced ceramic materials ever dream that they could contribute to amazing high-tech applications? I like to think they did. A team of such pioneers founded what is now TAM Ceramics 110 years ago. How has the company evolved? Find out here.

Of course, industry advances wouldn’t be possible without high-quality materials and equipment that are often tailored to specific applications. “With advances in materials technology set to continue and product variety expected to increase even further, specification best practice will become continually more challenging to apply,” writes Morgan Advanced Ceramics’ Lance Caspersen. Learn more in his article in this issue.