News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
The NASA ACO program selected 17 US companies for 20 partnerships to mature industry-developed space technologies for the Moon and beyond. Of these, at least seven are involved, directly or indirectly, with 3D printing technologies. At least three of these – Ai SpaceFactory, Elementum 3D and Blue Origin – will work specifically on 3D printing and additive manufacturing related projects.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has granted a €385K development contract to launch provider, Dawn Aerospace under the Future Launcher Preparatory Program (FLPP).
Lockheed Martin picked Relativity for the NASA Tipping Point mission. Relativity signed a contract with Lockheed to provide its rockets for a particularly complex mission Lockheed is undertaking for NASA’s Tipping Point program. While Relativity has not yet flown any fully 3D printed rocket, its technology promises to produce rockets in days instead of months once the development process will have been completed).
NASA is exploring additive manufacturing to build rocket engines as well as potential outposts on the Moon and Mars. Nearer in the future is a different milestone: NASA’s Perseverance rover, which lands on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, carries 11 metal parts made with 3D printing (some of which were produced by Carpenter Technology as we reported in this exclusive interview for 3dpbm’s AM Focus 2020 Service Providers eBook)
As part of the Artemis program, NASA is returning astronauts to the Moon where humanity will prepare to reach Mars. Through NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology project, or RAMPT, the US space agency is advancing the development and implementation of metal DED technology to 3D print large rocket engine parts. The method will bring down costs and lead times for producing large, complex engine components like nozzles and combustion chambers for use in the SLS (Space Launch System) launch vehicle, which will bring humans back to the Moon and eventually to Mars as part of the ongoing Artemis program.
Maybe it’s because of the new contract that the DoD just awarded to SpaceX help get its Space Force satellites into orbit (and that will bring Elon Musk’s company $2 billion dollars). Maybe it’s just because SpaceX was among the first to understand the benefits of AM for end-use space parts. Either way, the company is now expanding AM activities and looking for new Additive Manufacturing Engineers, and for Process and Applications Development.
As the newest NASA Mars rover is off on the third mission this month to the Red Planet, you can bet lots of parts on the rover itself, and the vehicle taking it there, are 3D printed. So much so, in fact, that there was a full size replica of the Perseverance Rover at the launch site. That replica is also available to download as a 3D printable 3D model from NASA’s website.
The first orbital spaceflight from the United Kingdom is getting closer following the Highland Council’s decision to give the go-ahead for the Space Hub Sutherland spaceport. Orbex, the UK-based space launch company known for its large single-piece 3D printed rocket engine, has confirmed that Orbex Prime will be the first vertical launch vehicle to fly into orbit from the Space Hub, which will be constructed near Melness on the northern coast of Scotland. Orbex today confirmed the company has already signed six launch contracts.
The space entrepreneurs who planned to send passengers ballooning into the stratosphere for astronaut’s-eye views of the Earth below, way back in 2013, have revived the idea for a new venture called Space Perspective. Co-CEOs Taber MacCallum and Jane Poynter unveiled their concept for a balloon-borne capsule called Spaceship Neptune today, and said that uncrewed test flights are due to begin early next year.
Rocket Lab, one of the space industry’s unicorn startups, successfully launched its Electron rocket to deliver a payload of satellites to orbit in the Don’t Stop Me Now mission. Rocket Lab is known for its massive use of additive manufacturing in the production of the Electron rocket’s propulsion system, the Rutherford Engine. The rocket launched, as scheduled, on June 13th, from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.