American space agency NASA has just secured funding for approximately 18 early-stage 3D printing projects developing technologies to help on its next mission to the Moon. As part of the agency’s 2019 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) seed programs, the projects are among 363 proposals that have collectively received over $43 million […]
Made In Space applies Archinaut additive manufacturing to give scientists a better view of the stars
American off-world manufacturing specialist Made In Space, Inc. has confirmed its intentions to develop a system that will help to extend scientists’ gaze into space. In this project, the company’s Archinaut low-gravity truss 3D printing technology will be integrated into an interferometer satellite. When linked together, multiple interferometers act as a kind of “virtual telescope” in […]
Made in Space: Proving Further 3D Printing & Robotics Capabilities with Archinaut System
We hear a lot of talk these days from global aerospace players about how 3D printing and robotics will further space travel, assist in further exploration of the Moon, colonize Mars, and employ futuristic plans that sound like they will allow many of us to live out fantasies not unlike those we’ve enjoyed during sci-fi movies (just leave out the apocalyptic darkness and terrifying space monsters please).
Now, Made in Space is continuing to live up to their name in regards to technical functionality in space, having just reached another achievement with Archinaut, part of an ongoing collaboration with NASA to further self-sustainability in space through construction of satellites and even entire spacecraft while away from Earth. In connection with their NASA Tipping Point contract, they have further proven AM and robotics capabilities in testing, in cooperation with the Archinaut Technology Development Project (ATDP), funded by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
The system was evaluated in thermal vacuum (TVAC) testing last fall in Redondo Beach, California at Northrop Grumman’s Space Park facility, during simulation of thermal and pressure environment of a satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This is just one more critical step toward making the Archinaut system ready for manufacturing parts in space, using dynamic programs like the PowerKit system, able to deploy a 2kW power system on a 150 kg ESPA-class satellite—exhibiting power five times that of current systems. Other deployment systems include an antenna that can perform major duties like exploring space, along with managing telecommunications and remote sensing.
“This technology will contribute to a more sophisticated low earth economy and lay the groundwork for more advanced commercial utilization of space,” added Rush.
MIS has even set a record with their extended additive manufacturing technology (ESAMM), capable of making structures longer than even the machine itself, with a Guinness World Record set at 37.7 meters long. In testing, MIS was also able to demonstration successful operation of ESAMM in a thermal vacuum chamber.
Led by Made in Space, other partners such as Northrop Grumman are providing integral development to the project also, mainly in systems integration. Oceaneering Space Systems was responsible for the robotic arm which will be so integral to the creation of sizeable structures built in space, along performing necessary upgrades. The robotics system can also be made responsible for doing repairs, along with small sat integration when payload retrievals and installations are necessary in space. During testing, the MIS team was able to show off the functionality of features like the following:
- Autonomous reversible connection
- Joining techniques of 3D printed parts
- Nodes and trusses for robotic arm
- End effector for assembly operations
“We are very proud of our team for achieving this critical proof point that ultimately lines us up for operational missions with customers in both government and commercial sectors,” said Andrew Rush, President & CEO of Made in Space. “We look forward to the next steps of preparing Archinaut-enabled missions for flight.”
What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.
[Source /Images: Made in Space press release]
Made in Space delivered the first 3D printer to the International Space Station.
Archinaut 3D printing technologies deemed ready for orbit
Technologies inside the Archinaut, a spider-like 3D printing satellite developed by off-world manufacturing company Made In Space, have been declared “prepared to operate in space.” Through testing in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) simulation, Made In Space demonstrated the Archinaut’s ability to manufacture and assemble a variety of structures. Andrew Rush, President & CEO of […]
Tethers Unlimited Recycler and 3D Printer Refabricator Operational on Board the ISS
Soace manufacturing start-up Tethers Unlimited has had a tumultuous time of late. The firm which aims to develop in space manufacturing technologies and has successfully seen its Refabricator put in use on board the ISS space station now. The recycler has been installed and is now being put to use by astronaut Anne McClaine. At the same time, Tethers has had to lay off a fifth of its staff due to cash flow problems stemming from the government shutdown in the US.
Astronaut Anne McClain installing the Tethers unlimited FDM 3D printer and recycling unit on board the ISS. She appears to be wearing a rugby shirt which would be fitting since she participated in the rugby world cup as well as being a helicopter pilot with 216 missions in Iraq, engineer, a mom and an aerospace engineer.
Tethers as a firm has always been a bit of a wild ride. The company started in 1994 looking to commercialize space tethers. Tethers in space are long (tensile) cables that can be tied to satellites and other space vehicles. Long dreamt about rarely used successfully the idea is that a long tether tied to a satellite could be used for propulsion or power generation in space. An Electrodynamic tether, for example, conducts and by passing through a planet’s magnetic field. This kind of tether can use the Lorentz force (electromagnetic force) of an electrified tether against the magnetic field of a planet to push the spacecraft into a new orbit. This would save on fuel and perhaps let craft slingshot around planets more efficiently. Momentum exchange tethers may actually let the spacecraft slingshot itself into space through spinning. A bolo of a tether tied to a craft may be used to spin and propel other craft onward in their journey.
Marko Baricevic of Tethers Unlimited testing the Refabricator
Skyhooks would do the same but at much higher speeds. A space elevator is a tether tied to a craft in geosynchronous orbit above 35,000 KM in altitude which could be used to life payloads potentially inexpensively (once you build the most expensive thing ever which is also the biggest thing ever and also would need advances in material science to even be remotely feasible). Meanwhile, several 20 kilometer long tethers could together form an electric solar wind sail propelled by an electron gun shooting at these tethers to keep them in high potential while the craft spins giving the extended tethers centrifugal force and letting them stay extended enough for them to harvest force from solar wind plasma. Tethers could also be used to generate power. Tethers are amazing dream mayonnaise for making any insane space idea palatable. Tether dreams are way beyond Elon Musk’s comparatively quotidian dreams of cities of Mars and reusable rockets without Elon’s magical capital sourcing ability and media presence.
A momentum exchange tether courtesy of Tethers Unlimited
So for Tethers, the firm, going since 1994 a 3D printer and recycler onboard ISS may seem like a bit of a climb down and limited technical challenge compared to what they want to be doing. Nonetheless, for us, it is a great leap. If we conceive of astronauts spending many years in space and journeying through the solar system we know now that many unforeseen things will go wrong. Accidents will happen and valves not opening properly and nonfunctional O rings have killed astronauts. Just a few years ago a design flaw nearly caused an Italian astronaut to drown in space. If we extend our proposed space journeys to years then we know things we will not have foreseen will go wrong beyond any imaginary tolerance for failure that we can engineer away through redundancy. The perfect spacecraft may exist on the platform but it will not exist underway.
In essence, we need a magic satchel with stuff that could repair all the things in ways that we could not imagine them breaking. A combination of a 3D printer and a recycler is that magic satchel. A recycling unit can take food packaging, waste and things no longer need it and turn it into 3D printer filament which then can be printed into solutions for problems. Nonworking solutions can be recycled into iterations of better ones and all of those failures and the winner can be recycled into future solutions waiting to happen. We commonly refer to those as 3D printer filament. A spool of filament is really a seem of ideas not made yet or a roll of problems unsolved. The reason I love 3D printing and am completely obsessed with it is this idea of a recycler and 3D printer combo remaking our world forever letting us consumer while we reuse so please excuse the much more than efficient stream of words. NASA itself says that 95% of spare parts in space will never be used but they don’t know which 95% and that on the 13 tonne ISS they predict 450 Kilograms of failures each year. This in itself makes for a very compelling case for 3D printing spares.
Graphical representation of ISS logistics.
Tethers has now made an Express rack compatible recycler that is being used on board the ISS as we speak. The Refabricators objective is to,
“The Refabricator demonstrates a unique process for repeatable, closed-loop recycling plastic materials for additive manufacturing in the microgravity environment of the ISS a minimum of seven times. Samples consisting of sections of filament and standardized material testing specimens are collected from each cycle in order to quantify any degradation of material that occurs during the recycling and printing process, and enhance the understanding of the recycling process in space.”
The Refabricator
This would be quite the polymer 3D printing challenge here on earth but at least NASA is being realistic on the number of recycling cycles and material degradation of plastics which a lot of people don’t seem to know. The Refabricator is meant to show,
“Integrated recycling/3D printing capability thus provides significant cost savings by reducing the launch mass and volume required for printer feedstock while decreasing Earth reliance.”
Tethers CEO Rob Hoyt said,
“It will provide future astronauts the ability to manufacture tools, replacement parts, utensils and medical implements when they need them, and greatly reduce the logistics costs for manned space missions by reusing waste materials and minimizing the amount of replacement parts that must be launched from Earth,”
The printer was made for $2.5 million so that’s a good amount to spend on engineering a printer that works well in space and can also recycle. Tethers has additional expertise via a $10 million FabLab project to make a fab lab in space but this is separate from Made In Space‘s own 3D printer initiative. Tethers Refabricator is meant to recycle ABS and they will do it through a process that they’ve called positrusion.
As well the Positrusion effort by Tethers NASA is also developing the CRISSP both as apart of NASA’s ISP (In Space Manufacturing) program. CRISSP is focused on recycling packaging but is also being carried out by Tethers while Cornerstone Research Group is doing a similar effort (but with creating reversible copolymers that can take antistatic bags and turn them into parts) and Resonetics has been tasked with making a sensor and monitoring package. Meanwhile Made in Space is working on its printer and 3D printed metal printing for NASA. Ultratech Machinery (with ultrasonic 3D printing), Techshot and Tethers again are also working on metal parts. With Tethers opting to use its Positrusion system for metals and then combine it with a robot arm and CNC. In metals Techshot wants to use low powered lasers with metal wire in its SIMPLE technology (which is far from it). Techshot’s SIMPLE will use an induction coil around an FDM nozzle to extrude a metal filament which is then sintered by a low power laser. Techshot itself is also working on recycling and separately biofabrication. whats better than astronauts? 3D printed astronauts. Weirdly GE isn’t apparently working for NASA on metal even though its EBM process has been evaluated thoroughly by NASA. Tethers is also working on medical printing in space while the Marshall Space Flight Center itself is trying to print electronics and circuits. NASA also has efforts underway to print structures in space outside of the vehicle which Made in Space, Loral, Orbital ATK and Tethers are working on. NASA also 3D printing structures on MARS so Elon has a place to live. This MARS effort has a contest element as well as a cooperation with the US Army Corps of Engineers here on earth with the ACES initiative which we’ve covered extensively. Additionally, NASA is printing engines and more parts for space systems themselves.
Positrusion is a new filament extrusion technology that Tethers came up with specifically for space based recycling. The system can accept “miscellaneous ABS parts, it will dry and degas the input material before melting and extruding it through a die, and the cross-sectional dimensions and feed-rate of the cooling extrudate will be tightly controlled in a continuous analog of closed-die molding.”
NASA diagram of the Positrusion recycling system
In closed die molding, material is injected into a closed cold mold at high velocity while degassing removes material and creates voids that must be filled while the build material is often quickly cooled. If the Refabricator can control the gas removal and make the filament free of voids while at the same time making sure that there is no bubbling on the surface then they could have a very small form factor recycling process. Tight control of that process could give them high-quality polymer parts as well. If they could tightly collapse the system they make have a really amazing nozzle based print head that can dose and deposit accurately at one point in the future.
Dr. Allison Porter Missions Manager at Tethers Unlimited with the Refabricator
As well as ABS the system is being tested for use with Ultem 9085 this SABIC material is a UL 94-V0 rated low flame, toxicity and smoke high-performance polymer which you can here on earth get on your Stratasys system and is used widely in aerospace. For space use the Ultem would be significantly safer than ABS and a better bet going forward I should hope. Would this mean that NASA would be inclined to increase its use as build material across the space craft or in other material applications? Ultem Tang packaging anyone?
Developments as the Refabricator would seem to be absolutely essential for the future of space exploration and travel. By recycling what is on board and what is no longer used astronauts could develop solutions for many of the problems that they can encounter and extend the life of the craft that they are traveling on. Here on earth, refabricator-like devices could extend all of the things that surround us. What do you think will homes see refabricators or will this just be a tool for spacefarers? In the meantime here on Earth Tethers has just shed some very experienced people and is hoping to avoid another shutdown, a rather humdrum problem for a company that wishes to conquer the stars.
€500,000 available in Metalysis and ESA space exploration competition
The European Space Agency (ESA) and UK metallurgic company Metalysis have launched a €500,000-reward competition to devise systems that will aid space exploration. The competition is to design a process-monitoring system that works with Metalysis’s existing electrochemical cells. These cells convert refined oxides and ores into metal alloy powders, including those used in 3D printing […]
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Genius: 100 Visions of the Future, the world’s first 3D printed book
British-Israeli industrial designer Ron Arad, has designed a 3D printed book to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. The project was completed in collaboration with the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University (CFHU), an NGO for the promotion of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a university co-founded by Albert Einstein. Genius 100, a Canadian-based community […]
Archinaut Enables Production of More Powerful Small Satellites
A 3-meter mockup of the Archinaut-built solar array
Made In Space started building its Archinaut system a couple of years ago – essentially a 3D printer with a robotic arm capable of building in the vacuum of space. The purpose of the machine was to be able to build and repair satellites in space, creating larger and more complex systems than could be launched from Earth. But it’s small satellites that Archinaut’s technology is enabling currently – small satellites with the power of large ones.
Currently, small satellites are restricted to one kilowatt of power or less, but Made In Space is developing a power system that can provide up to five kilowatts of solar power, enabling the small satellites to provide large satellite capability.
“These systems enable power intensive payloads to be deployed to space at a fraction of the cost of larger satellites, with no sacrifice in power provisioning,” said Andrew Rush, CEO of Made In Space.
Archinaut-based solar array systems use space-manufactured structures and robotically assembled solar cell blankets to provide up to 20 square meters of solar array for small satellites that launch from ESPA rings or small launch vehicles.
“Despite advances in avionics and payload packaging, small satellites provide less capability per kilogram than their larger brethren because small satellites are power constrained. This often prevents power intensive science, remote sensing, communications, and defense payloads which otherwise fit,” Rush said. “Deploying these power intensive payloads on small satellites is game changing because these platforms costs an order of magnitude less to build and launch and can be fielded much more rapidly than 1,000+ kilogram satellites.
“The technology risk is very low. The core additive manufacturing technology currently operating in space and the extended structure manufacturing and robotic system hardware demonstrated in thermal vacuum chambers simulating the LEO environment.”
The longest 3D printed part
Made In Space’s extended additive manufacturing technology (ESAMM) is capable of manufacturing structures much longer than the machine itself, and last year the company set a Guinness World Record for the longest 3D printed part, which was 37.7 meters long. ESAMM was also successfully operated in a thermal vacuum chamber that simulated a Low Earth Orbit environment.
“We continue to develop these technologies, planning more complex thermal vacuum and laboratory tests focusing on more complex and autonomous manufacturing and assembly operations,” said Rush.
Archinaut’s power system is capable of providing up to five times the power of state of the art systems for small satellites by launching the system with raw material and tightly packed solar arrays rather than folded up booms and complex deployment mechanisms. On orbit, Archinaut manufactures the core array lattice structures and integrates solar array blankets robotically, physically and electrically, completing the solar array wing.
“Due to the volume and mass efficiencies of manufacturing the structure, a small satellite such as a 150 kg ESPA-class satellite could be deployed with 5 kW of power,” said Rush. “Today, that kind of power is only available on 1,000+ kg satellite buses launching on rockets costing tens of millions of dollars.”
Archinaut’s power system will enable many large satellite applications on small satellites. It can also operate as a standalone system integrated into larger satellite buses, making larger systems more efficient. Preliminary studies indicated that a 500-kW Archinaut power system using modern solar cell blankets requires 2,000 m² of solar array surface area and has a system mass of 1,000 kg – more than an order of magnitude less mass than systems currently on orbit. The International Space Station’s eight solar array wings, in contrast, have an area of about 2,500 m² with a system mass of 65,000 kg.
“Because the Archinaut system uses in space manufacturing and robotics, the same core technology will be useful for a range of spacecraft missions,” said Rush. “It can also be used for a range of impactful applications beyond power systems, such as creating large apertures or spacing out sensors from one another.”
Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
[Images: Made In Space]
Allevi partners with Made In Space for first zero gravity tissue 3D printer
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