Rev 002 28.61°N 080.60°W Kennedy Space Center
MCB-1, a material that went to orbit
A biomimetic smart material inspired by muscle fibres, built by Mat X Space and flown to the International Space Station on SpaceX CRS-31 in November 2024.
Context
Outside a spacecraft, every orbit swings a material from full sunlight to deep shadow. MISSE, a platform on the International Space Station, exposes samples to that environment so teams can study how they hold up.
The team
Mat X Space is a collective of young Mexican scientists and engineers. Before MCB-1 flew, the team presented research papers at the International Astronautical Congress in Baku in 2023 and in Milan in 2024.
My part
I’m on the marketing team. I built matxspace.com and its blog, and I look after how the project is told. In 2024 I attended the Summer Space School at Samara University and wrote about it in Spanish.
Coverage
The launch was covered by Forbes México and El País, which told the story of the kids who dreamed of the stars.