YOUNGSTOWN — The chemical engineering program at Youngstown State University has been awarded nearly $400,000 to develop 3D printed batteries for use on the moon and on Mars.

The funding from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is the second award from NASA in about two years; the first grant was used to advance research to create 3D-printed high-temperature sensors.

The latest award will help fund the development of sodium batteries, as opposed to lithium, and upgrade technology used for production, according to a release from the university.

“Right now, most batteries are made of lithium and this metal is scarce in outer space. We are working to use sodium, which is much more plentiful in space and will be more readily available for future developments,” Sina Bakhtar Chavari, a Ph.D. student focused on materials science engineering, said.

Also, the project examines moving away from the two-dimensional component printing process mostly used to make lithium batteries to studying a more complex 3D printing process for the sodium battery, the release states.

The evolving architectures will yield batteries with superior electrical performance, giving them more power and energy, the release states.

The project is led by Pedro Cortes, professor of materials science and engineering. Also involved are Bharat Yelamanchi, lecturer for the YSU Rayen School of Engineering, and The University of Texas at El Paso.