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V O L . X X V I I I N O. X X I X D E C E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 2 2 14 M A N U FAC T U R I N G T emperatures reaching thousands of degrees. Brutal cosmic condi- tions. Novel exploratory missions traversing billions of miles for years at a time. From satellites coursing through Earth's atmosphere, to planets and moons within the unassisted human gaze, to extraterrestrial bodies that inspire wonder, products made by Maine companies are part of a new global space industry that is today exploring Mars, circling the moon and sampling inter- stellar dust in a quest to determine the origin of life and the universe. A Lewiston company makes com- ponents for NASA's moon and Titan programs. A Biddeford manufacturer develops thermal protection systems for Mars. Brunswick startups are build- ing rockets and satellite ground support equipment. e challenges of manufacturing for extreme conditions are technical and inventive. We checked in with some of these companies. Brutal conditions Biddeford composite manufacturer FMI, a subsidiary of Spirit AeroSystems (NYSE: SPR), produces reinforced ther- mal protection composites for products that must endure high temperatures. FMI has worked with NASA for decades and has been involved with some of that agency's most prominent projects. ese include the heat shield used on the Stardust mission, in which a 390-kilogram robotic space probe launched in 1999 to travel three billion miles, collecting dust samples from the coma of comet Wild 2, as well as samples of cosmic dust, before return- ing to Earth in 2006. FMI's heat shield, protecting Stardust's reentry, had pro- tective insulating panels made from a composite material that was developed by NASA. e heat shield had to live up to tough specifications, protecting the robotic capsule from temperatures that hit thousands of degrees Fahrenheit in brutal cosmic conditions. FMI fabricated composite heat shield thermal protection systems for NASA's Mars Science Lab, which landed the robotic rover Curiosity on Mars in 2012; and for NASA's OSIRIS Rex mission, expected to return in 2023 with samples from a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu for analysis. e heatshield is critical for bringing the sample back to Earth, as it protects the craft and its contents from the 4000-degree F tem- perature resulting from the 27,000-mile- per-hour atmospheric entry. FMI fabricated the thermal pro- tection system for the transport and entry aeroshell that is part of NASA's second Mars mission, which landed the Perseverance rover in 2021. It manufactured a heatshield that will allow for the Dragonfly spacecraft to enter Titan's atmosphere. e company has been involved in the Artemis/Orion mission since 2007, providing critical propulsion compo- nents for the craft's launch abort system that is designed to safely steer the Orion crew away from the space launch vehicle as needed during the flight to space at either the launch pad or during ascent. Development of FMI's heatshields starts with high-performance woven carbon fiber impregnated with resin to create a "ceramic matrix composite" that is particularly tough, withstand- ing erosion and other forces that might otherwise result in materials failure, says Patrick Sullivan, FMI's technical project manager. "Essentially, you want a material that's going to erode as little as possible in an extremely high-temperature envi- ronment," he says. "ere are very few materials that can withstand these types of temperatures." Critical to the material's develop- ment is its low thermal conductivity and its properties as it's depleted during operation. For NASA, says Sullivan, ablation must occur in a way that's easily modeled and predicted. P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY F O C U S P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F E L M E T T E C H N O L O G I E S Patrick Sullivan, FMI's technical project manager, says few materials can withstand the extreme conditions of the space environment. P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y O F E L M E T T E C H N O L O G I E S Dan Drinan, Elmet Technologies' director of quality and continuous improvement, says components must be made to operate and maintain strength at temperatures ranging just below −400° Fahrenheit to over 350° Fahrenheit. Elmet Technologies' tungsten ballast weights are part of NASA's Artemis mission, which recently launched an unmanned mission to the moon. Manufacturers are building for the new space industry B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r ( or at least outer space) MAINE STARS for the aims

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