Marshall NASA awards YSU grant to develop 3D printed batteries to be used on the Moon and Mars
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has awarded the Chemical Engineering program at Youngstown State University $393K to conduct a project surrounding the production of 3D printed batteries, led by Pedro Cortes, professor of Materials science and Engineering.
This comes as the second award from NASA in just over two years for the YSU program, as they previously received a grant to advance research aimed at creating 3D-printed high-temperature sensors, also led by Cortes.
This award will help to fund the development of sodium batteries, as opposed to lithium and upgrade technology used for production. PhD student focusing in Materials Science Engineering, Sina Bakhtar Chavari, explained, “Right now, most batteries are made of lithium and this metal is scarce in outer space. We are working to use sodium which is much more plentiful in space and will be more readily available for future developments.”
In addition to changing the battery material, Bakhtar Chavari and his team are also looking into moving away from the typical two-dimensional component printing process for the production of the battery itself typically used for lithium batteries, and studying a more complex and intricate three-dimensional printing process to also accommodate for a sodium built battery.
Bakhtar Chavari explained further, “Because we are currently operating with lithium battery technology, we need to update all areas of the production to function with sodium. As a result, we are working to make this update in the printing process, using Digital Light Processing, or DLP for a higher resolution.”
The evolving architectures will yield batteries with superior electrical performance, giving them more power and energy.
Working alongside Cortes and Bakhtar Chavari, is Bharat Yelamanchi, lecturer for the YSU Rayen School of Engineering, and The University of Texas at El Paso, collaborating on the battery production, processing and running mechanical tests.
“This innovative project paves the way towards in-space/on-surface development of free-form energy storage devices for applications in Lunar/Martian habitats,” said Cortes.