NASA Takes on Metal Joining in Microgravity

Image from UIC

What’s Happening

It was in early June 2025 that NASA awarded a grant of almost $750,000 to a multi-university team at University of Illinois Chicago to study how metal welding behaves in space conditions.

The project, entitled "Weld-ASSIST: Weldability Assessment for In-Space Conditions using a Digital Twin," will focus on understanding how vacuum conditions, low gravity, and extreme temperature gradients affect weld pools and joint integrity. UIC leads the work, studying laser or high-energy welding of aerospace-relevant alloys under microgravity or vacuum simulation.

Why It Matters for Aerospace Mechanics

Many metal structures in space, such as habitat modules, satellites, or rocket stages, rely on welds for their structural integrity. If welding behaves differently in orbit than on Earth, launch-and-fix approaches may fail. This research helps to pave the way for the repair, assembly, and construction of large structures in orbit or on lunar/Martian surfaces. Quite simply, better mastery of in-space welding will enable us to build larger, lighter, and stronger aerospace systems.

Key Implications and Takeaways

First, the quality of a weld in microgravity can be different with regard to altered fluid flow, buoyancy, and heat conduction compared to Earth. Second, digital twin modeling will enable engineers to forecast these effects in an upfront manner before their real deployment. Third, successful welding in space paves the way for future mechanisms in aerospace, such as on-orbit servicing, modular spacecraft, or reusable deep-space hardware-shifting from "launch once" to "build and maintain in orbit."