The Application of 3D Printing to Satellite Structures

The investigation of additive manufacturing technology started in the 1980's and over the previous four decades has developed dramatically. The advantages of this technology, such as increased geometrical design freedom, faster production times, the possibility of increased functional integration, the reduction of material waste and reduced costs have driven the development of this technology in many market sectors. However, the benefits of additive manufacturing is only starting to be realised within the spacecraft industry. Within the last five years there has been a growing momentum of research and development into the application of additive manufacturing for spacecraft and in many cases, this has been constrained to the optimisation and production of small secondary structural components.
The University of Southampton has recently been working in this field through the European Union funded project entitled 'ReDSHIFT' (Revolutionary Design of Spacecraft through Holistic Integration of Future Technologies) which began in 2016 and is finishing in March 2019. This involved the design, simulation and test of many functional components as well as a complete 3D printed small satellite 8U cubesat structure. This PhD project build on the work that has been initially explored within the ReDSHIFT project, aiming to complete a more thorough investigation into one of the previous applications areas. These include satellite shielding, demisability, small satellites and the application of this technology to large satellite structures.