The Exploration Company
TRUMPF is set to collaborate with European space-travel start-up The Exploration Company on the construction of core components for spacecraft for missions in the Earth’s orbit and to the moon. As soon as spring 2024, The Exploration Company will use 3D printers from TRUMPF to print parts for the Huracán and Mistral engines for the Nyx Earth and Nyx Moon spacecraft in Planegg near Munich.
The Exploration Company says that the aim of this project is to make the Huracán engine reusable in orbit with bio-methane and oxygen.
“Our aim is to offer space missions more cost-effectively than was previously possible. Our spacecraft can benefit from TRUMPF’s manufacturing and application expertise. TRUMPF has decades of experience in the production of high-precision components,” said Hélène Huby, CEO of The Exploration Company.
The start-up plans to send a space capsule to orbit the Earth for several months in an initial mission in 2026. Starting in 2028, further missions are planned to go to the moon. The spacecraft will initially carry freight, but in the long term, people will also travel on board.
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“With our 3D printing technology, we are driving the commercialisation of the space-travel industry. If you want to be successful in the space-travel industry today, you have to use additive manufacturing,” says Dr. Tobias Brune, Head of Business Unit Additive Manufacturing at TRUMPF.
The Exploration Company says that with the help of 3D printers, it saves valuable raw materials, as it will only use the material that will ultimately fly into space. The start-up says that in the past, aerospace companies produced components using conventional manufacturing methods such as stamping, forging and casting, with much of the material ending up as waste.
The Exploration Company has so far raised 65 million EUR from private and public investors, and employs around 120 people at its sites in Planegg and Bordeaux.
