Direct printing of sensors onto spacecraft parts

Over the last several months, LIST has been working with LuxSpace, a provider of space systems, applications and services in Luxembourg, as part of the "Printed Temperature and Strain Sensors" – PriSe, project funded by the European Space Agency. With this project, LIST researchers and their partners are committed to assess, by mid-April 2020, various innovative techniques for direct printing of thermal and strain sensors onto spacecraft parts that can measure temperature changes and deformation, respectively.

Deposition techniques to identify

Together they intend to reduce the burden of the spacecraft’s manufacturing and testing process, which includes installation of large number of sensors (up to several hundreds) that are essential for following their behaviour, either during assembly integration and testing (AIT), or during missions thousands of kilometres from the Earth. The installation is not only delicate but also takes high tolls on time and price.
To allow direct printing of thermal and strain sensors onto spacecraft parts, different deposition techniques will be selected and evaluated throughout the project. This work is under the responsibility of LIST researchers specialized in the process and materials development, testing and characterisation.

Battery cells and propulsion tanks

In the course of first months, LIST researchers and LuxSpace selected main application cases, i.e., battery cells and propulsion tanks for thermal and strain sensors, respectively. The two selected cases offer the highest complexity reduction and timesaving compared to standard fabrication techniques. In the course of the project, LIST and LuxSpace teams will also work on the development plan for the assessed technologies.

> To find out more about the PriSe project, please see the project web page