German Startup 3D Prints Rigid Beam on Free-Flying Satellite in Orbital First

A satellite built by the German startup Orbital Matter has 3D printed a half-meter long beam from a custom plastic material, which executives called a first for a free-flying spacecraft in orbit. The company frames the achievement as a step toward constructing large structures directly in space rather than folding them for launch.

The technology addresses a growing challenge for future spacecraft, which will need to generate far more electrical power and radiate far more heat into the vacuum, particularly if they serve as orbital data centers. Those spacecraft must still fit within the tight confines of a rocket fairing, so building equipment in orbit could ease both the power and heat-dissipation problems. Today's large space structures are deployed origami-style, with solar arrays and telescope mirrors folded for launch and unfolded on orbit, a tricky engineering approach that makes in-space construction appealing.

The company's small satellite, Replicator-2, launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission this summer carrying four of the company's 3D printers. Each printer creates a rigid, cylindrical beam by extruding coils of resin cured by ultraviolet light, which the company compares to cement and water. Two of the printers were designed to deploy a flexible solar array. An anomaly caused one printer to fail, but the boom that was created successfully deployed the solar array, serving as a proof of concept. Previous 3D-printing efforts in microgravity were confined to the pressurized environment aboard the International Space Station.

Orbital Matter was co-founded in 2022 by CTO Robert Ihnatsin, who previously worked at 3D printing company FormLabs, and CEO Jakub Stojek, and has raised a 3 million dollar seed round. The company is partnering with the European Space Agency and Thales Alenia, a European satellite builder it collaborated with on Replicator-2. "We preferred to learn in orbit and adapt the software as needed rather than waste years testing every possibility on the ground," Ihnatsin said, explaining why the team put so many printers on a single satellite. The boom's length is limited by the amount of resin carried onboard, and the company's engineers believe 100 meter booms are feasible. By comparison, SpaceX's Starlink V2 Mini satellites use solar arrays 20 meters long.

"Replicator 2 is the first proof that we can simply build the array in space, at whatever size the mission demands," Stojek said. The company casts the result as evidence that spacecraft could construct their own equipment on orbit at the scale a mission requires, easing the challenge of generating power and shedding heat within the limits of a rocket fairing.

Orbital Matter is working on another demonstration mission scheduled for launch in 2028 that will test a larger printer on a bigger satellite, which the company hopes will deploy a solar array capable of generating 5 kilowatts of power. The company describes that as a stepping stone toward larger deployments exceeding 100 kilowatts per wing by 2030. It is also collaborating with satellite builders considering incorporating its printer-assisted deployment system, known as PADS, into their spacecraft to extend solar panels, antennas, or other components.