Magnetism is the pulsing heart of many devices aboard any spacecraft. Soft magnetic materials act as ferromagnetic cores inside electric motors employed in reaction wheels, control moment gyroscopes, pointing devices and so on. Soft magnetic materials (mainly sintered ferrites, Fe-Ni, Co-Fe, Si-Fe alloys) and their manufacturing process, however, are featured with some critical issues, such as a very limited design flexibility and the need of post-processing machining (with further materials waste). Furthermore, they suffer from corrosion and their high electrical conductivity favors the circulation of undesirable eddy currents.
The use of polymer-based magnetic composites allows to solve the aforementioned issues and to employ additive manufacturing techniques, enabling in-space manufacturing. Besides, the current need for high-performance polymer-based magnets intended for aerospace applications remains unsolved.
Our proposal is the development of 3D printable PEEK-based soft magnetic composites, specifically designed to be the ferromagnetic core of the electric motor of a control moment gyroscope. Polyether ether ketone (PEEK) has been recognized as a full credit space-compliant polymer.
The project aims to bring the TRL of manufacturing this novel magnetic polymer composite material up to 5 and proving the concept by manufacturing a suitable demonstrator. Looking at the upcoming human space exploration era, these devices could be the keystone to a convenient, clean and efficient energy conversion exploiting in situ resources (ISRU), found on the surface of other planets. Indeed, the Moon’s regolith contains magnetic dust, composed mainly by native iron, nickel-iron of sub microscopic particle size, with minor contributions from ilmenite, paramagnetic iron minerals, and other iron-titanium oxides. These particles could be potentially employed as fillers in a PEEK-based soft magnetic composite to 3D print an electric motor on the Moon.
