With a new $600,000 NSF grant, Dr. Michael Kinzel and his students plan to leverage a “direct ink writing” process — a form of additive manufacturing akin to 3D printing — to make ceramic nanocomposites in a microgravity environment. The project’s primary goal is to better understand how low-gravity space conditions impact material processing and properties. His team also hopes to create new ceramic and regolith-based sensors by finetuning manufacturing parameters. Ensuring the safety of astronauts in space will require high-performing new sensors to detect chemicals and gases, monitor significant temperature changes and identify damage to supporting structures. For the NSF-funded project, dubbed BRITE-PIVOT (Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering), Kinzel will explore the field of light-matter interactions — the study of how matter can absorb, emit, transmit, reflect and refract light — to characterize the mechanics of ceramic materials under extreme conditions.
“We are working with students to explore complexities of mixing particles in microgravity,” Kinzel noted. “The technology developed in this effort creates the tools to build, rather than ship, complex sensors for lunar operations. This is just one step to what could be a game-changing approach to cost reduction that can enable these colonies to thrive.” As a first step in the three-year project, Kinzel’s team will begin developing an “acoustic levitation device,” in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to simulate aspects of manufacturing in a microgravity environment. The Embry-Riddle research team will then develop unique measuring devices to study how microgravity changes heat transfer and fluid flow during material processing and how those changes impact the microstructure of materials.
Lunar infrastructure will rely on sourcing materials directly from the moon’s surface and transforming them into structures. A practical first step is developing precision sensors using the most accessible surface soils.”
Dr. Michael Kinzel Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering
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