The development of a new Silicon Carbide thermal spray coating for space applications is described. The coating is based on Seram Coating's novel ThermaSiC technology. Compared to vacuum deposition methods (e.g. PVD or CVD), the thermal spraying of ThermaSiC provides faster deposition rates with higher efficiency while significantly lowering application costs. ThermaSiC has been especially designed to be used with standard atmospheric thermal spray systems removing entirely the need for expensive vacuum chambers. For space applications, it has a number of potential advantages, such as corrosion and abrasion protection, good performance at high temperature, very high hardness and low mass. 

The coating has been optimised for use on standard metallic substrates (Al and Ti) commonly used for space applications, using different coating parameters and spraying techniques. Preliminary testing has been successfully performed (abrasion, adhesion, microstructural characterisation, thermal) which demonstrates that the coating has excellent potential for a variety of space applications. A specific focus of the activity was the use of the coating for planetary surface exploration missions, and the results of testing in a Mars wind tunnel simulator are also described. The plans for future development efforts to further assess the compatibility of the coating with the space environment are presented, including additional high temperature testing, vacuum thermal cycling and lunar dust abrasion testing.