Mission Illinois, a project intended to demonstrate the manufacturing of carbon fiber composites in space, began its third phase last month. The multiphase study will conclude sometime in June 2026.
The project is led by Sameh Tawfick, professor in Engineering, and assisted by Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology researchers Jeff Baur, Philippe Geubelle, Jeff Moore and Nancy Sottos. It is funded through the Department of Defense.
Tawfick describes Mission Illinois as a “high-risk, bold idea for manufacturing in space.” The project aims to send a cube-sized system — approximately close to the size of an old desktop computer — to space. It will be attached to the International Space Station in a specific location known as the Bishop Airlock.
The Bishop Airlock is one of the garages of the International Space Station. The astronauts in the crew will experiment with in-space manufacturing once the system reaches its destination at the garage.
The project relies on a curing technology developed by Illinois Principal Investigators along with Sottos, Moore and Geubelle. Curing is a chemical process in which materials are produced or hardened via cross-linking polymer chains. The researchers developed a self-curing resin that does not require continuous heat to be cured and utilizes a process called frontal polymerization.
“It is very similar to a fuel, where you trigger it, and it starts giving out all of the heat that was stored in its chemistry, and that heat helps cure the system,” Tawfick said.
Tawfick said this process is especially effective in space due to a shortage of energy and no power plants.
Outgassing, or the possible evaporation of the curing resin, is a concern among the researchers.
“We are standing by with contingency materials, should we have problems like that, and are constantly thinking about how to replace what we currently are using with what would be a more suitable material that does not,” Moore said.
Microgravity, commonly referred to as the lack of gravity, is another concern. This problem can also impact the curing process on Earth.
When testing the curing process on Earth, the team accounts for different conditions in space by creating a vacuum, as well as the presence or lack of presence of certain constraints through simulations.
“We will have theoretical and numerical models that will tell us what’s going to happen, but the experiment cannot be conducted on Earth — it will be conducted in space,” Tawfick said.
Currently, the research team is working to meet the deadline of having the payload of the mission ready, which will be sent in January 2026.
Space manufacturing opens many doors in the future of science. Most notably, it would allow large structures in space to hold antennas or telescopes.
Telescopes and antennas are difficult to send out to space because they take up a large volume, especially compared to their low masses. The room inside the launcher is the biggest constraint regarding space launches, so it is not ideal to send out structures this way.
“We’re thinking about it from the standpoint of actually manufacturing in space as opposed to simply having a foldable object that can be unfolded,” Moore said. “We think there’s going to be a lot more versatility if you can do the manufacturing in space.”
paul34@dailyillini.com
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