When setting up a lunar station, technologies for the use of locally available materials are crucial. Such technologies drastically reduce the need for transportation from Earth. This project idea aims to provide proof of a key technology, namely Mobile – Selective Laser Melting (M-SLM) for building large structures on the Moon.

Test data on material properties and material performance under cryogenic conditions are increasingly required or current and future research, development and application activities (e.g. launcher propulsion systems). The very limited available data base does currently not cover new advanced metallic alloys, composite materials or materials manufactured with new processes e.g. Additive Manufacturing as selected and required for the next generation launcher and spacecraft missions.

When setting up a lunar station, technologies for the use of locally available materials are crucial. Such technologies drastically reduce the need for transportation from Earth. This project idea aims to provide proof of a key technology, namely Mobile – Selective Laser Melting (M-SLM) for building large structures on the Moon. A mobile high power laser beam is directed on lunar regolith leading to its melting and after cooling to solid structures. In an independent study, we designed the MOONRISE payload up to an engineering model (EM).

A system is researched and developed to store water in its liquid state at temperatures below the freezing point using a passive unfreezing method. This is achieved by mixing it with phytantriol, a commercially available non-toxic, non-volatile, non-corrosive, non-inflammable lipid. Both, the scale up of the enrichment process from laboratory scales, and the separation of water from phytantriol, are demonstrated experimentally.

Increasing numbers of regulations in Europe (e.g. RoHS, REACH, CLP) are implemented targeting sustainable development, environmental impact and protection of human health. The most imminent implication is the possible obsolescence of qualified materials, processes and technologies, as manufacturers are forced to change materials compositions, alter manufacturing processes or take the decision to remove materials from the European market.

Lunar regolith can be sintered/melted by intensive solar or laser radiation to dense and rigid structures. For reaching the required energy densities, sunlight can be focused by means of mirrors or lenses. In the present study, solar radiation is simulated by a CO2 laser system, providing a maximum power output of 12 kW cw. The laser has been used to generate large laser spots of 50 mm respectively 100 mm. In both cases a parallel laser beam with the same diameter of the laser spot has been generated to make the spot diameter independent of the distance to the target powder.

The continuously increasing amount of long-term and of historic data in EO facilities in the form of online datasets and archives makes it necessary to address technologies for the long-term management of these data sets, including their consolidation, preservation, and continuation across multiple missions. The management of long EO data time series of continuing or historic missions, with more than 20 years of data available already today, requires technical solutions and technologies which differ considerably from the ones exploited by existing systems.

The production process of full-CFRP struts, was before only suitable for low volume production rates (~10 struts/month) and including worker safety critical processes. This approach had to be reviewed and changed to enable production rates >100/month and improve worker safety. The activity focused on the: 

The Low-Cost Solar Panel Assembly GSTP Project has the high-level objective of increasing the European TRL level for innovative, high power to volume ratio, versatile, low-cost solar arrays, in this way contributing to cover the gap in this area with US manufacturers and to improve Europe global competitiveness. This new generation of solar power systems are also key to electrical-propelled missions in the whole range of orbits of interest