NASA Taps QuesTek Innovations to Develop Toolkit in ICMD® Software to Enable Reliable Manufacturing in Space

EVANSTON, Ill. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA selected QuesTek Innovations for an Ignite SBIR Phase I award to develop computational tools that design new materials, processes, and products optimized for the microgravity environment of space. The SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) award supports QuesTek's development of ASTRO-Grav (Alloy Simulation Toolkit for Robust Optimization in Low Gravity), a new modeling and optimization framework that integrates multi-fidelity simulations with high-throughput experiments.

"Being selected for this NASA Ignite award is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of in-space manufacturing," says Jason Sebastian, Executive Vice President at QuesTek Innovations. ASTRO-Grav will advance NASA's long-term vision for sustainable operations in orbit, on the Moon, and eventually on Mars."

To support long-duration missions, astronauts will need reliable ways to fix and fabricate parts while working in low Earth orbit or deep space. Many manufacturing processes behave differently without gravity, creating challenges for welding and other repair techniques.

"To live and work in space for long durations, future astronauts may need to be welders, fixing and replacing parts as they explore low Earth orbit or deep space," says a NASA announcement of the project. "But welding requires gravity, which presents a challenge in the space environment. As a solution, QuesTek Innovations created a simulation toolkit that will use computer modeling to predict how the properties of welded materials change in space and optimize the processes used."

Building on QuesTek's ICMD^® materials simulation software platform, ASTRO-Grav will identify optimal alloy compositions and manufacturing parameters tailored for low-gravity conditions. As NASA prepares for longer duration space missions, the toolkit will help determine how to produce strong, reliable parts in orbit and on the lunar surface.

About QuesTek

QuesTek's Materials by Design^® technology and ICMD^® software platform are proven to reduce the development time and cost and increase the performance of novel materials. In its market space, QuesTek is the first provider to execute the full cycle from novel design to production, certification, and flight operations with proprietary materials, in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional, or purely algorithmic methods. Fast Company named QuesTek a 2025 Most Innovative Company in the space industry. questek.com

Learn more about NASA's SBIR/STTR program here.

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SOURCE QuesTek Innovations