Say hello to the toughest material on Earth (satellite, function, best)
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I'm not a scientist, just a dilettante interested in sciences, so most of this is over my head and I bring it to your greater minds than mine. It seems to me after wading through this, that this material might be an organic replacement to our plastics. Is that crazy, or possible with more study?
It isn't organic. It comes much closer to known metal alloys. That said, it is remarkable and I can foresee it being used to make thinner and lighter propellant tanks in rockets, once production issues are resolved, as well as micrometeoroid shields on communication satellites.
I don't know where you get "organic replacement for plastics" from a description of an exotic chromium-cobalt-nickel alloy.
The reason the most common engineering materials are the most common is that for the VAST MAJORITY of applications they offer the best combination of functional properties and cost. Until you've tried mild steel, cast iron, 6061 aluminum, brass, copper, hardwood, softwood, Buna-N, paper, felt and glass, don't start fiddling around with exotics.
What's being described is an exotic alloy that probably has a tiny number of applications in the very most demanding situations - extreme stress, extreme temperatures - where cost is no object. In other words, the total opposite of what the ordinary garden-variety plastics like polystyrene, polyethylene, etc that create the most pollution are used for.
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