{"id":12381,"date":"2017-05-24T08:04:53","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T08:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2017-05-24T08:04:53","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T08:04:53","slug":"3d-printing-cubesat-bodies-cheaper-faster-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/3d-printing-cubesat-bodies-cheaper-faster-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printing CubeSat bodies for cheaper, faster missions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CubeSats orbiting Earth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a first test of a new printable hard, electrically conductive plastic, ESA has 3D-printed CubeSat structures incorporating their own electrical lines. In future, such miniature satellites could be ready to go once their instruments, circuit boards and solar panels were slotted in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been looking into 3D printing using \u2018polyether ether ketone\u2019 \u2013 or PEEK,\u201d explains ESA\u2019s Ugo Lafont.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPEEK is a thermoplastic with very good intrinsic properties in terms of strength, stability and temperature resistance, with a melting point up around 370\u00baC. PEEK is so robust that it can do comparable jobs to some metal parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe started a project with Portuguese company<\/span> PIEP<\/a> and, in a technical first, we made this printable PEEK electrically conductive by adding certain nano-fillers to the material.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of customising has taken place for as long as the plastic industry has existed. Plastic has been mixed with different materials to tailor their properties as desired, to make them more resistant for instance, or shinier. In this instance, this \u2018doped\u2019 PEEK filament can now be used as a standard feedstock in our 3D printing process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a demonstration of this breakthrough, Ugo and intern Stefan Siarov from TU Delft in the Netherlands decided to print bodies for CubeSats.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Electrical lines in CubeSat body<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These are cheap nanosatellites literally in a box: they are based on rugged, stackable electronic boards housed in one or more standardised 10 cm units. First developed as educational tools, CubeSats are increasingly being put to active uses in orbit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe resulting PEEK CubeSat structures would be capable of flying in space,\u201d comments Stefan. \u201cBut these bodies are also functional, because they incorporate electrically conductive lines in place of the wire harness normally connecting up the different CubeSat subsystems.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As a next step, the Materials\u2019 Physics & Chemistry team is collaborating with ESA\u2019s Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration on a space-optimised PEEK printer for initial testing on \u2018zero-g\u2019 aircraft flights, then eventually at the service of astronauts on the International Space Station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision we have to enable a new maintenance strategy,\u201d adds Ugo. \u201cRather than just making toys with no added value, PEEK and comparable thermoplastics are robust enough to find a lot of practical uses, plus the added option of electrical functionality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSpace Station crews end up needing all kinds of items, all of which currently require transport from Earth: everything from screws and water valves to hermetic containers and water valves. All of these could be 3D-printed instead \u2013 even toothbrushes \u2013 since PEEK is biocompatible.\u201c3D-printing such items in orbit would be cheaper, and would change the equation of recyclability. Because these plastic items can later be recycled, we reduce the scarcity of materials in space and start to make human missions to space more self-sustaining.\u201dStefan meanwhile is now assessing the recyclability of other 3D-printed engineering thermoplastics at ESA\u2019s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWe have been taking a continuing interest into high-performance thermoplastic materials over the last decade,\u201d comments Christopher Semprimoschnig, heading ESA\u2019s Materials\u2019 Physics and Chemistry Section. \u201cThe freedom that new processing options such as 3D printing offer are especially intriguing for ESA.\u201dReflecting the relative maturity of this 3D-printed material, a small PEEK-printed structural part is due to fly on the Meteosat Third Generation series of weather satellites at the end of this decade.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a first test of a new printable hard, electrically conductive plastic, ESA has 3D-printed CubeSat structures incorporating their own electrical lines. In future, such miniature satellites could be ready to go once their instruments, circuit boards and solar panels were slotted in. \u201cWe\u2019ve been looking into 3D printing using \u2018polyether ether ketone\u2019 \u2013 or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",600,338,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",600,338,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",700,394,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",550,310,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",95,53,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",640,360,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",96,54,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/CubeSats_orbiting_Earth_node_full_image_2.jpg",150,84,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}