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Materials for space exploration and settlement

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 846–850 (2018)Cite this article

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Space missions require materials that can preserve functional integrity under extreme conditions of heat, impact and radiation. This Comment outlines the materials properties needed for some of the most ambitious space missions and presents the design and testing principles before their incorporation.

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Fig. 1: Challenges for spacecraft materials.
Fig. 2: Additive manufacturing.

reproduced from ref. 2, CEAS (a); and ESA/Foster + Partners (b)

Fig. 3: Structural verification approaches for AM manufactured parts.

adapted from ref. 15, Elsevier

Fig. 4: SolarBlack technology.

ESA/Anneke Le Floc'h (a) and ESA (b)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESA-ESTEC, European Space Technology and Research Centre, Noordwijk, the Netherlands

    Tommaso Ghidini

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  1. Tommaso Ghidini
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Correspondence to Tommaso Ghidini.

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Ghidini, T. Materials for space exploration and settlement. Nature Mater 17, 846–850 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0184-4

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