Reusable landing gear for the next generation of space landers

October 29, 2026 -

Can spacecraft landing gear be reused instead of discarded after every touchdown? Through the ESA-supported RESHAPE project, CSEM and Almatech demonstrated a reusable, 3D-printed shape memory alloy shock absorber that could help make future lunar and planetary landers lighter, simpler and more sustainable.

What if spacecraft landing gear could absorb the shock of touchdown, recover its original shape, and be ready for the next mission? Through the ESA Discovery & Preparation-supported project named RESHAPE, CSEM and Almatech designed, 3D-printed and successfully demonstrated a reusable shape memory alloy shock absorber for spacecraft landing systems, opening new possibilities for lighter, more sustainable lunar and planetary landers.

Why reusability matters for landing systems

Every time a rocket or lander touches down, something has to absorb the impact. Today, that job usually falls to crushable aluminum honeycomb cartridges paired with hydraulic dampers, effective, but single-use, heavy, and complex to integrate. Together, these components can account for more than a quarter of a landing leg's total mass budget, for a comparatively modest energy-to-mass return. As reusability becomes central to affordable, sustainable space access, whether for launchers returning to Earth or landers reaching the Moon, that trade-off is a growing limitation.

Over 18 months, and with support from the European Space Agency's Discovery & Preparation programme, CSEM and Almatech set out to test a different approach: a shock absorber that recovers its shape after impact and can be used again, potentially replacing today's conventional single-use aluminium honeycomb cartridges.

The idea: a metal that remembers its shape

The project combined two technologies:

• 3D-printed lattice structures. Rather than using solid metal, the team designed lightweight lattice structures, precisely engineered repeating millimeter size patterns resembling a rigid sponge, that deform in a controlled way to absorb impact energy.
• Nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy. The lattices were printed in nickel-titanium, an alloy known for its ability to return to its original shape after being deformed, simply by heating it. During landing, the structure compresses to absorb energy. Once heated afterwards, it returns to its original shape, ready for the next touchdown.

Manufacturing this combination is not trivial: printing a fine, reliable lattice in a shape memory alloy pushes the limits of what additive manufacturing (3D printing) can currently achieve. The CSEM and Almatech team tested four different lattice geometries before narrowing in on the design that offered the best balance of strength, energy absorption, and printability.

From lab samples to a working demonstrator

The team moved through several stages of testing, each one scaling up in size and ambition:

• Small prototypes were printed and compressed under both slow ("quasi-static") and high-speed impact conditions, to make sure the material would behave the same way in a real, fast landing as it does in a controlled lab test.
• The key experiment involved compressing a sample, heating it to activate the shape memory effect, and repeating the cycle 24 times.
• A demonstrator, roughly the size of a large coffee can, was then built and tested to confirm the design still performed once made bigger.

The results confirmed the feasibility of the approach. In a terrestrial reusable rocket booster landing scenario, a coffee-can-sized sub-scale demonstrator absorbed the energy required for the target application when scaled to full size, providing a key indication of the concept's scalability beyond the smaller specimens tested earlier in the project. The demonstrator also kept peak loads below the required threshold and maintained stable, predictable behavior across 24 reuse cycles.

RESHAPE demonstrates that shape memory alloy lattice structures can deliver predictable and reusable impact absorption over multiple landing cycles. By combining shape memory alloys with additive manufacturing, we can rethink components that have remained unchanged for decades.

- Vaclav Pejchal, Material & Technology Expert, CSEM

CSEM's role: from material to demonstrator

CSEM led the project from concept to demonstration, drawing on its experience in laser powder bed fusion of NiTi shape memory alloys, a material system that requires careful process control to achieve consistent performance.

CSEM's contribution spanned the full chain: selecting and down-selecting the lattice geometries, developing the manufacturing parameters needed to reliably print fine NiTi lattice structures and running the full quasi-static, high-speed impact, and reusability used to validate the demonstrator's performance. That data then fed directly into Almatech's landing-leg system analysis, translating lab-scale material behavior into a full-scale shock absorber design, a good example of how CSEM's materials and manufacturing expertise plugs into an industrial partner's system-level engineering.

Working with CSEM has consistently been a great for Almatech. Our teams share the same pragmatic approach to innovation, combining CSEM’s deep technological expertise with Almatech’s space engineering and application know-how. RESHAPE is another great illustration of how this close collaboration allows us to transform ideas into solutions addressing space mission needs.

- Dr. Fabrice Rottmeier, Chief Technology Officer, Almatech

What's next

RESHAPE has demonstrated that reusable, additively manufactured shock absorbers are no longer just a concept, they are a credible alternative to today's single-use landing systems. While further development and qualification will be needed before the technology reaches flight-ready hardware, the project has laid the foundations for a new generation of lighter, simpler and more sustainable landing systems.

Looking ahead, the team sees strong potential for this technology in future lunar missions. Programmes such as NASA's Artemis and ESA's Argonaut envision repeated landings at the same lunar sites, where reusable landing gear could be refurbished on-site instead of being replaced with hardware shipped from Earth. As humanity prepares for a long-term return to the Moon, and eventually missions beyond, components that can be reused, repaired and manufactured in space will be essential. RESHAPE offers a glimpse of what those future space missions could look like.