CTE - Thermoplastics Development for Exploration (TDEA) (CTE-TDEA)

Completed NASA Game Changing Development project led by Marshall Space Flight Center that matured thermoplastic composite materials, joining processes, process modeling, and structural analysis for lunar landers, surface systems, on-orbit assembly, and launch vehicles. The project developed structurally efficient joints for large monolithic structures, performed more than 250 material characterization tests and 600 coupon welds across three processes, and demonstrated the potential to reduce mass, part count, manufacturing time, and bond-related failure risk.