Advanced ceramics: a materials platform for next generation aerospace and beyond

The workshop aims to create a concrete bridge between the advanced manufacturing ecosystem and the space economy. It highlights how advanced materials and surface technologies can access new markets and high-value applications through space-driven innovation.

To what extent might the advanced ceramics and their composite variants emerge as game changing leaders in next generation aerospace extreme environment technologies and beyond? This contribution is meant to introduce a non-professional audience to some of the current frontier topics on advanced ceramics manufactured as bulk or composite, for aerospace and beyond. It is expected that the potential of advanced ceramics for extreme-environment technologies can be unlocked by leveraging their favorable property combination of high melting point, lightness and strong resistance to chemical degradation and oxidation under extreme conditions.

Emilia Romagna Region has recently financed SMAL-SAT (https://www.smal-sat.eu/), a project aiming to develop enabling technologies for a nanosatellite mission dedicated to environmental monitoring of the Emilia-Romagna region. As for the propulsion module of the nanosatellite, dedicated manufacturing processes were devised for the additive (3D) manufacturing of advanced ceramics, alongside the development and production of ceramic catalysts.

Edited by CNR – ISSMC Institute of Science, Technology and Sustainability for the Development of Ceramic Materials (ISSMC), National Research Council of Italy (CNR).

In collaboration with BEX – Beyond Exploration Expo, The Expo Conference for the Space Economy, taking place in Rimini from September 23 to 25, 2026, concurrently with Tecna.