Researchers created low-cost, 3D-printed plasma sensors for satellites

A group of MIT scientists has come up with a way to bring down the costs of space travel. MIT claims to have developed the first 3D-printed sensors for use in satellites. The ion energy in the upper atmosphere can be detected with the help of the sensors.

The researchers used a glass-ceramic material calledVitrolite to make the sensors. It is said to be more resistant than other materials used in sensors. Using a 3D-printing method, the team created sensors with complex shapes that can stand the wide temperature swings of a spaceship. The temperature of vitrolite can reach 800 degrees Celsius without melting, while the polymers used in other RPAs start to break down at 400 degrees Celsius.

The sensors could be used for low-cost cubesats. Chemical analysis and energy measure can be carried out when they're used on satellites.

According to the scientists, the sensors perform as well as similar devices made in a clean room. Assembling RPAs in a clean room can take a long time. It takes just days to make them with 3D printers and laser cutting.

There is room for improvement according to Luis Fernando Velsquez-Garca, a principal scientist in MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories. The hope is to create more complex and precise devices by reducing the thickness of the glass-ceramic vat. The belief is that the sensors would be compatible with in- space manufacturing.

The space agency has been working on space-based 3D printing. The International Space Station has a printing press. NASA is planning to launch a demonstration craft that can build, assemble and deploy a surrogate solar array to learn how the approach can benefit the Artemis program.