Improvement of the reliability and robustification of the Metal3D project, commissioned by ESA, the first metallic 3D printer to operate in orbit

The recent increase in space activities, particularly in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), brings significant attention to the issue of space sustainability, concerning the impact of these activities both on orbit and on Earth. One of the solutions identified by the scientific community is space additive manufacturing, which would allow for the recycling of space components already in orbit, that would otherwise become debris, as well as reducing the launch mass of satellites, thus optimizing the payload of space launch vehicles. A project led by the European Space Agency, called Metal3D, involving an industrial consortium headed by Airbus Defence and Space, aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using in-orbit additive manufacturing for the production of metallic parts. The technology demonstrator, which arrived on the International Space Station in 2024, has achieved this goal, although there is still significant room for improvement. This context frames the work presented in this Master Thesis: after an overview of the demonstrator’s hardware and software functioning, a series of improvements are presented, aimed at paving the way for the development of a more autonomous and efficient version of Metal3D. The proposed improvements range from the implementation of image processing and data fusion algorithms to enhance the in-situ monitoring process of printed parts, to the preliminary design of a closed-loop control system. The performance of each improvement is also evaluated through appropriate simulations, which demonstrate the interest and effectiveness of their future implementation in what will be Metal3D 2.0.