Several key materials processes and techniques positively impact weight reduction and reusability of parts designed for travel to the moon, Mars, and beyond. This article addresses how advances in technologies such as additive manufacturing, friction stir welding, and surface analysis, can help further enhance design and fabrication of space systems.

A new friction stir processing method, submerged bobbin tool tunneling, creates subsurface integral pathways in components that can be used as channels for wiring, gases, fluids, powders, or as a lightweighting technique.

This article discusses the development of a new metallographic technique to identify defects in aluminum alloy joints produced by friction stir welding. This method won the Jacquet-Lucas Award for Excellence in Metallography at the International Metallographic Contest held during MS&T in Pittsburgh, October 2017.

A new solid-state joining process for medical guidewire applications increases joint strength, provides superior bending properties, and does not require tertiary metals or ferrules. This process may be a superior method to create joints between dissimilar metals such as stainless steel and Nitinol.

Linear friction welding (LFW) is a solid-state process capable of joining noncircular parts by oscillating one part under load to create frictional heating. From joining railroad rails to producing strong aluminum-to-steel joints, recent advancements in LFW technology are reducing equipment costs and expanding potential uses.

Additive manufacturing (AM) continues to make significant technology advancements and attract widespread interest in industry, academia, and the general media. However, the technology is likely still a decade away from attaining meaningful implementation in industry and has yet to find adoption in large-scale or partcritical manufacturing operations, such as airframe structural component production. As a bridge technology that takes advantage of existing manufacturing methods while AM is being fully developed, near-net manufacturing is a promising alternative. Near-net fills the gap between classic subtractive manufacturing and AM, and it may be accurately described in terms of grain size.

Integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) is a relatively new discipline that shows great promise for reducing the cost and time required to design and deploy new materials, manufacturing technologies, and products. This article introduces an ICME implementation framework for product development using modeling of a friction stir welding process as an example.

This article reports on a study to better understand the integrity and microstructure of extrusion welding in a magnesium alloy (AM30) hollow section extrudate using light optical microscopy. The article is based on the entry that won the prestigious Jacquet-Lucas Award for Best in Show at the 2013 International Metallographic Contest.