Conference: Workshop on Materials for Space

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY

A virtual workshop, organized by a small Steering Committee (including the Chair) and facilitated by a professional workshop and support company, gathers 50 experts from materials science, space environments effects, spacecraft engineering, and mission planning communities. Convening for six half-day periods spanning three weeks, participants are identifying current and future needs for materials that can perform their functions in various space environments and defining materials research areas where investment is likely to have the greatest impact on future missions.

While space has always been a key national security venue, the rapid growth in the use and exploration of space for economic purposes will undoubtedly have immensely important political and international consequences. Thus, a key objective of this workshop – the identification of transformative areas of materials research leading to prolonged operation of planned missions or the enabling of new ones – will naturally impact the whole of society, bringing new knowledge and economic benefits.

These benefits require a talented and innovative workforce in materials science and engineering (MSE), so another key objective is developing strategies to attract a larger and more diverse body of students to MSE and educate them for careers where their talents can push back the frontiers of space utilization and exploration.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Space environments are unforgivingly harsh on spacecraft, which are almost always subjected to high energy charged, and often neutral, particles and short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation. In addition, micrometeoroids may strike spacecraft in certain environments, and some mission profiles may lead to extreme heating, thermal gradients, or thermal cycling.

Besides the hazards caused by the natural space environment, man-made or induced environments create further hazards, including molecular or particulate contamination, electromagnetic interference, build-up and release of static charge, thruster plume impingement, and debris impacts. There are countless ways in which these hazards, acting either individually or in combination, may affect or even compromise the operation of a spacecraft by altering the properties of its materials in unwanted or unanticipated ways.

This workshop is identifying fundamental research directions that could substantially enhance the design, fabrication, and use of innovative metallic, ceramic, and composite materials and systems in spacecraft applications where the maintenance of material properties or functions in harsh or extreme environments is of paramount importance. This workshop also addresses the unique challenges of testing and qualifying new and potentially transformative materials for use on spacecraft.

In this context, the Steering Committee and participants are considering the increasingly relevant roles of theory and computation, advanced synthesis methods, emerging characterization approaches, and innovative property measurement approaches. Both laboratory and in-space property measurement techniques are being evaluated. Educational and workforce issues that limit the impact of research on new materials for space are also being addressed.

Finally, the workshop is considering the possible role of research on functional, yet durable, materials in meeting national security priorities for space missions. A report is being produced containing the most relevant and salient workshop findings.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.