The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
While this might look like a postmodern sculpture, this weirdly organic design is actually a 3D-printed deployment mechanism for satellite solar panels. This prototype titanium version, by Thales Alenia Space, is called the Adel’Light, being a lightweight version of their existing Adele mechanism.
The 3D-printed version slashes the number of separate parts needed and reduces its mass by 80%. The spiral hinges in the foreground cannot be produced as a single part in any other way.
The device was on show this week during ESA’s Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications workshop at its ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. More than 350 experts from across Europe came together to discuss the potential of 3D printing to transform the space industry and begin preparing common standards for its use.