Additive manufacturing of ceramic multi-material heating and ignition elements for a sustainable space access

The continuous advancement in the space industry and in space access has opened the doors to greater global participation and exploration, with numerous nations, institutes and companies now actively engaged in space exploration. This expansion owes much to the progress in commercial space technologies, such as reusable launch vehicles and micro satellites, which have significantly reduced the overall costs associated with space missions, thereby enhancing space accessibility. Nevertheless, to foster further growth, it is necessary to look at further options of making space access more sustainable and cost-effective. For that, it is important to investigate and identify the cost drivers. An example is the use of traditional manufacturing techniques and materials, which come with inherent limitations, notably in terms of design flexibility and performance efficiency. This results in solutions that are not only time-consuming to manufacture but also not the most effective, making it a costly process. To address these challenges, increasing emphasis is being placed on utilising alternative manufacturing methods, such as additive manufacturing technologies combined with high-performance ceramic materials. This aims to reduce the overall number of manufacturing steps for producing a component and to optimise complex and functional parts reducing the overall costs of mass-produced or individually manufactured components, as evident in current studies. The primary objective of this study is to enhance space accessibility through the development, production and optimisation of electrically functional, all-ceramic and multi-material components (heating/ignition elements). For that, the AM technology “CerAM MMJ” in combination with high performance ceramic material are utilised and discussed. Subsequently, these components undergo electrical measurements and tests, and the resulting data is presented and analysed in the following sections. The findings aim to shed light on the current state of the art and whether the additively manufactured, fully ceramic and electrically functional components could represent a more cost-effective alternative to conventionally manufactured components in the future.