Living on the Moon sounds fascinating, but of course it is not. The University of Pennsylvania has developed an insulating material designed for the harsh environments of long-term lunar missions.
Dubbed hybrid layered insulating film stacks (HyLIFS), the material combines high thermal insulation with mechanical durability. This kind of balance is rarely achieved by current space insulators like aerogels or standard multilayer insulation, which tend to be fragile or easily torn.
HyLIFS consists of hundreds of stacked, ultrathin Mylar sheets (the polymer used in emergency space blankets). Some layers are coated with a thin layer of aluminum oxide (alumina) to enhance stiffness and block infrared radiation.
Protecting the future explorers
When the humans return to the Moon to stay, keeping warm won’t be easy. Lunar temperatures swing wildly, dropping hundreds of degrees below zero during the long night before spiking above boiling at noon.
Space agencies mostly use lightweight insulators like aerogels and reflective foils to survive the vacuum of space, but they’re also exploring alternatives.
Penn is working on hybrid layered insulating film stacks.
Researchers created a highly durable insulator with top-tier thermal performance by stacking Mylar sheets coated in aluminum oxide. The material retains its protective insulating power even under extreme compressive pressure.
“These stacks of Mylar can bend, withstand substantial compression, and maintain their insulating performance. Potentially allowing them to be packed, transported, and survive rough treatment over many years of use,” said Igor Bargatin, senior author and Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM).
The material’s strength surprised even its creators. During lab testing, the thin stacks were repeatedly subjected to 20 megapascals of compressive stress. It is roughly equal to balancing 200 pounds on the tip of a single finger. The material survived across 10 consecutive stress cycles.
“We were concerned about the material failing under such high compressive stress. But the stacks didn’t survive just one high stress cycle — they survived 10 in a row,” said first author Danielle R. Levin.
Role of antiblocking particles
In solving the durability problem, the team also stumbled upon an unexpected scientific insight.
It was originally assumed that using the thinnest available films would yield the best insulation. Thinner films allow more layers to be packed into the same space, fitting in a higher number of heat-blocking boundaries. The data proved otherwise.
The key was in “antiblocking” particles, which are microscopic bumps added by commercial manufacturers to keep plastic wrap from sticking to itself.
In a vacuum, heat doesn’t travel through the empty space between layers, but it crosses almost entirely through the microscopic contact points where these tiny particles touch neighboring sheets.
A higher concentration of contact points in thinner films creates more pathways for heat to leak through. Through mapping the way these microscopic particles deform under pressure, the Penn team realized they could custom-design heat barriers by tuning particle size, film stiffness, and coating thickness.
“The simplest configuration ended up being the best one,” noted Levin.
The current prototype samples are small (about one square centimeter) and manually assembled sheet by sheet. Scaling the process up to produce meter-wide rolls for habitats, rovers, and spacesuits will require automated roll-coating manufacturing.
The combination of flexibility, toughness, and low cost makes HyLIFS an attractive candidate for lunar habitats, spacesuits, rovers, and electronics that often endure accidental bumps, packing, and long-term space exposure.
The findings were published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.