Mitsubishi Electric is Enabling Freeform 3D Printing of Satellites in Outer Space

Mitsubishi has long been active in more than just the automotive sector. The Japanese manufacturer of electrical and electronic products has also been making use of additive manufacturing technology and the associated new market fields for some time. Recently the company announced, the development of a new technology for additive manufacturing which uses a combination of photosensitive resin and ultraviolet light in order to 3D print satellite antennas in the vacuum of outer space.

With the development of the newly developed liquid resin, the company is primarily targeting the challenge of manufacturing small, low-cost spacecraft buses with large structures. This means that reflectors for high-performance antennas can be made using additive manufacturing, subsequently also enabling the improvement of spacecraft structures, which thus become thinner and lighter.

Medium pressure with an ultraviolet light source in a vacuum below 0.2 kPa (photo credits: Mitsubishi Electrics)

Mitsubishi Addresses Design Challenges for Satellites

In the broadest sense, the three main requirements for spacecraft antenna design consist of high gain, wide bandwidth and low weight, all of which conflict with each other. The maximum gain and bandwidth to be achieved require a large aperture, but for economic and orbital use, the antennas must still be light and small enough to fit inside a launch vehicle. And this is where Mitsubishi Electrics’ innovative approach comes into play: the resin-based manufacturing approach enables the efficient creation of antennas with high gain, wide bandwidth and large aperture.