Speaker
Description
The European Space Agency is looking into the implementation and use of new materials to enable new applications for space. Polymers and polymer composites specially are part of such focus among others. However, the benefit of new functionalities or capabilities brought by materials shall be assessed against their behavior under the effect of space environment.
In this paper, the status and recent advanced of technology development ongoing at ESA will be reviewed (self-healing, thermoplastics, vitrimers, 3D/4D printing). Effect of space environment (VUV, Thermal Cycling, ATOX) on the functional performance of advanced thermoplastics materials (PolyEtherEtherKetone-PEEK) focusing on electrically conductive PEEK processed by additive manufacturing will be presented. The results obtained on this material mechanical, optical and electrical performances be presented including demonstrator enable by such material and process combination. The effect of the process and its relation with the material on the final part performance will be discussed as well showing the importance of having a standardized approach to enable accurate part qualification.
The recent advances on the use of 4D printing concepts suitable for space application will be exposed and discussed with an emphasis on the role of meso-structuration and biomimetism.
In the last part, the results presented and the role of materials in the implementation and development of out-of-earth / In-space manufacturing capabilities will be put in perspective against the current state-of-the-art and available technologies.
| Speaker Country | The Netherlands |
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