3D printing for microsatellites-material requirements and recent developments

Tomasz Blachowicz; Kamila Pająk; Przemysław Recha; Andrea Ehrmann; Tomasz Blachowicz; Kamila Pająk; Przemysław Recha; Andrea Ehrmann

doi:10.3934/matersci.2020.6.926

AIMS Materials Science

2020, Volume 7, Issue 6: 926-938. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2020.6.926

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3D printing for microsatellites-material requirements and recent developments

1.
Institute of Physics-Center for Science and Education, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
2.
Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
3.
Faculty of Engineering and Mathematics, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, 33619 Bielefeld, Germany

Received: 28 August 2020 Accepted: 18 December 2020 Published: 22 December 2020

Microsatellites for space applications are being intensively investigated in recent years. They can be used for diverse imaging and inspection applications in space, are relatively inexpensive and can be developed fast. Another rapidly emerging class of technologies is 3D printing which can be used to prepare nearly all shapes from diverse polymers, metals and other materials. The intersection between both techniques, however, is still small. Here we give an overview of the first approaches to perform 3D printing for microsatellites and similar space applications, of material requirements for such applications as well as properties of typical 3D printing materials, enabling suggestions for future experiments and pointing out challenges which have to be taken into account.
- microsatellites,
- 3D printing, polymer,
- metal,
- spacecraft,
- temperature,
- irradiation
Citation: Tomasz Blachowicz, Kamila Pająk, Przemysław Recha, Andrea Ehrmann. 3D printing for microsatellites-material requirements and recent developments[J]. AIMS Materials Science, 2020, 7(6): 926-938. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2020.6.926

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Abstract

Microsatellites for space applications are being intensively investigated in recent years. They can be used for diverse imaging and inspection applications in space, are relatively inexpensive and can be developed fast. Another rapidly emerging class of technologies is 3D printing which can be used to prepare nearly all shapes from diverse polymers, metals and other materials. The intersection between both techniques, however, is still small. Here we give an overview of the first approaches to perform 3D printing for microsatellites and similar space applications, of material requirements for such applications as well as properties of typical 3D printing materials, enabling suggestions for future experiments and pointing out challenges which have to be taken into account.

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