In-Space Manufacturing of Functional Sensors

Abstract

Human exploration beyond Earth’s atmosphere is rapidly increasing and with it the need for supporting research and technology in the field. Among these, in-space manufacturing of functional materials, specifically those that possess sensing properties, is a significant but valuable challenge. This work explores two different manufacturing processes applied to lunar mare simulant (LMS-1D), towards the creation of functional sensors where optical emissions via spectroscopy have the potential to offer temperature or stress/damage sensing capabilities. Resin-based 3D printing using Digital Light Processing (DLP) was used to produce 10% wt fraction of regolith composite samples. A second approach of manufacturing binderless green parts and sintering at 1150oC was used to produce consolidated pure regolith sintered samples. Raman spectroscopy results, compared with raw powder, show that some distinct mineral peaks for both consolidated DLP samples and sintered samples were conserved. Intrinsic spectral emission intensities were seen to vary with the manufacturing process with lower or loss of intensities observed in pure regolith sintered samples, attributed to sintering. Compression test results for the pure regolith sintered samples showed a scatter in compression strength with an average of 67.4 MPa and a standard deviation of 25.3 MPa. The initial findings demonstrate the viability of sensor development using these manufacturing approaches. The findings demonstrate the potential for selectively manufacturing regolith materials with compositions that exhibit the desired sensitivity for tailored sensor functionality. The outcomes will offer a pathway to manufacture new functional materials from in-situ resources to meet space and earth-based needs.