Customer Applied Super-black Coating for Space and Defence

Surrey NanoSystems was the first company in the world to develop and commercialise spray applied super-black coatings that survive the environment found in low earth orbit (LEO) and deep space. In Space, Vantablack coatings are important as their unique ability to trap light efficiently from all angles allows space instrument designers to build more compact instruments that weigh less and occupy smaller volume on the satellite.

Key drivers for the space industry are reduction in cost, size and weight whilst retaining or improving satellite performance.

Applying our super-black space coatings to satellite parts requires multiple steps, capital-intensive vacuum processing and complex spray systems which means that space customers must send parts to our UK facilities for coating. Because we use vacuum processing, we are also limited to coating smaller components that can fit with in the reactor working space.

As space components are often export controlled by National Governments it means that our space business is severely hampered as customers wishing to send us parts are prevented from doing so. An example of this is the US ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations). ITAR-listed space parts are extremely difficult if not impossible to send to the UK for coating as foreign nationals are not allowed to see or interact with the hardware or designs.

In 2016 we developed a spray super-black coating for the automotive industry called Vantablack VBx2\. VBx2 is supplied to customers as a wet "paint" and importantly uses conventional spray gun technology to apply the coating in automated production lines. Unfortunately, the coating cannot withstand the harsh environment found in space as radiation and ultraviolet light cause damage.

This project will modify the technology used in VBx2 to create a spray applied super-black coating that will survive the space environment whilst allowing our global space customers to apply the coating through conventional means at their manufacturing locations.

This step change in the application of super-black coating-technology to space programs will remove overseas export control restrictions and the need for customers to ship parts abroad and will allow us to increase our market position from <1% to over 12% in a rapidly growing £100m market that includes baffles, blackbody and spacecraft cooling systems.

A super-black coating of our proposed optical performance will also allow baffles, thermal space radiators and blackbody systems to have a simpler design thereby lowering the launch mass and instrument real-estate on the satellite.