AcceptingGirl
1237
24
6
#Welding
Feb 17, 2026 5:34 AM
AcceptingGirl
1237
24
6
#Welding
Lurker55684
In space, there's a lot of room for activities.
Vebrandsson
As other commenters have pointed out it's not quite that easy. If it was we'd be manipulating metals in a vacuum on earth to weld them this way.
TheMoonBnuuy
It's not that simple though. The surfaces need to be clean, like microscopically clean, atomically clean... no oxidation at all. It would happen on Earth, but the oxygen in the atmosphere immediately bonds with any metallic surface, preventing cold welding from happening.
And what happens is that the two pieces of metal don't know they're supposed to be separate objects, so they just become one object.
It does work with alloys, but not as well. It works best with elementally pure metals.
TheMoonBnuuy
Oh and they need to be the same metals... iron to iron, copper to copper, aluminum to aluminum, etc.
CallMeMcGyver
In space… no one can hear you scream… or fart.
HardyandRamanujan
Or weld
AtlantisTheLostEmpire
Eww who farted?
Idontspellcheck
My bad.
JohnWickdidnothingwrong
It's not *quite* that simple, the metals have to be compatible and you have to wait, they don't instantly fuse.
ePluribus
Not to mention that the two meeting faces need to be spotlessly clean and also atomically flat. OP has VASTLY oversimplified it almost to the point of it being fundamentally inaccurate.
whooshby
Like roughly how long does it take?
JohnWickdidnothingwrong
Preparation is involved if you're actually trying to do it, but the actual join is essentially instant. It's just atoms sharing electrons and stuff, there's no chemical or thermal effects that need time to occur.
whooshby
Thx.
jalcantara88127001
Still pretty crazy
JohnWickdidnothingwrong
Oh it's wild. There's no filler, so it just looks like they just grew together.
jalcantara88127001
Have they been able to recreate the circumstances to achieve similar results on earth?
JohnWickdidnothingwrong
Yup, just need a hard vacuum and *clean* aluminum, copper, whatever. No dirt, oxides, aftershaves or deodorants. It's more trouble than it's worth for most jobs, but is used industrially for some real high-speed, low-drag wiring jobs in space vehicles and such. Sometimes a perfectly clean, distortion-free joint is worth it I guess.
jalcantara88127001
That's awesome. Seems like the way to go if you really need the integrity of the piece to be uniform throughout. Excluding when shape or use applies asymmetrical pressure to it.