# Materials for Extreme Environments

**R-2A activity** of project MSL-01 — MATERIALS PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY  
**Program element:** 0602025E — Making, Maintaining, Supply CHAIN AND Logistics  
**Component:** Defense-Wide · **Budget Activity:** 2  
**Vintage:** President's Budget PB2027  
**Canonical URL:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a1  
**Parent:** https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01

## Summary

This activity requests $20.1M in FY2027, 15% of project MSL-01, down 42% on FY2026. The R-2A exhibit describes it across FY2026–FY2027, including what the FY2027 money is planned to buy.

## What the FY2027 request buys

**FY2027 planned work.** - Complete builds of operationally relevant magnetohydrodynamic prototype pumps and conduct operational testing. - Conduct operational analysis and assessment of scalability study, evaluate future transition paths for PUMP technology. - Perform full scale inlet testing to verify modeling and simulation tools for VLEO inlets. - Complete testing and characterization of low drag materials systems developed for low earth orbit (LEO). - Deploy low drag materials to a persistent low Earth orbit spacecraft. - Develop and validate microstructure-informed lifing models to predict the performance of additively manufactured structural components. - Demonstrate the transferability of the sensor package and lifing models across two additive manufacturing platforms and two feedstock suppliers. - Explore applying previously developed methods to predict the service life and failure modes of a challenge part. - Demonstrate novel intrinsic approaches for metal-like toughness in ceramics and manufacture bulk ceramic part of more significant thickness, while also exceeding even greater flexural strength and even greater fracture toughness.

**FY2026 to FY2027 change.** The FY 2027 decrease reflects a shift from space launch and system development activities to testing and demonstration.

## Before the request year

**FY2026 plans — current year.** - Deliver experimental payloads for in-space demonstration of polymer composite manufacturing and radio frequency antenna structure assembly. - Launch and conduct material manufacturing and assembly technology demonstrations in low earth orbit. - Complete thruster testing for sustained operations in very low earth orbit (VLEO). - Test optimized design of air-collecting inlet and use experimental data for model validation. - Test low-drag materials for use in low Earth orbit to understand drag and degradation characteristics. - Test low-drag coatings applied to actual spacecraft components for preservation of functional performance to de-risk near-term inclusion on flight spacecraft. - Complete design for the prototype and scalability study for an operationally relevant magnetohydrodynamic pump. - Complete electrode material testing and concept feasibility verification to determine candidates suitable for an operationally relevant prototype magnetohydrodynamic pump. - Develop sensor packages capable of detecting micro-scale defects during metal additive manufacturing. - Develop microstructure model of additively manufactured components that include defects. - Explore and develop microstructure-based component-lifing models to predict the performance of additively manufactured structural hardware. - Develop and fabricate bulk ceramic test coupons that are of a certain minimum thickness, while also exceeding a particular flexural strength and a specific fracture toughness. - Assess ceramic microstructure stability through elevated temperature exposure. - Add additional complexity to material composition to ensure system can operate with unstable supply lines. - Plan testing and validation of material conversion capabilities for a widely varied scrap materials. - Verify and validate complex material predictions with unknown and contaminated material. - Perform burst pressure test on pressure vessels to validate material performance prediction capabilities. - Execute end-to-end design validation analysis of scrap material conversion, material property prediction, and redesign of a rocket.

## Funding

| Fiscal Year | Estimate Type | Amount ($M) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2026 | Enacted | 34.3 |
| FY2027 | Request | 20.1 |

> Prior, current and budget year only — an R-2A activity carries no five-year plan. It sums exactly into its project in the request year and not necessarily in any other.

## Other activities in project MSL-01

- [Functional Materials and Devices](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a0) — FY2027 41.2
- [Burn n' Go](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a2) — FY2027 18.7
- [Carbon Crunch](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a3) — FY2027 16.2
- [Making, Maintaining, Supply Chains and Logistics Studies and Concepts](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a7) — FY2027 13.7
- [Chemical Processing for Force Protection](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a4) — FY2027 12.0
- [Grainy Day](https://hitchintel.com/programs/0602025E/MSL-01/a5) — FY2027 10.5
- Reconfigurable Systems — FY2027 0.9

## Source & machine access

- **Source:** FY2027 Office of the Secretary of Defense RDT&E Budget Justification, Exhibit R-2A, PE 0602025E project MSL-01 (PB PB2027). Narrative is the government's own text.
- **No marks, no contractors at this grain** — congressional marks land on the program element and R-3 performers on the project.
- **MCP:** `mcp.hitchintel.com` — `budget_get_activity`.

*HitchAI is an independent intelligence service, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense. Budget figures are requests/estimates, not obligations.*