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.
Based on hot-fire tests of an Expander-cycle Integrated Demonstrator (ETID) that proved the technology and methods last year, ESA, ArianeGroup, and DLR German Aerospace Center have built and hot-fire tested a fully 3D printed thrust chamber.
On May 30th, 2020, SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon took off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket for its second demonstration mission: SpaceX Demo-2, the first with human astronauts on board. The launch took place as scheduled from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Airbus for the construction of the third European Service Module (ESM) for Orion, the American crewed spacecraft. The contract is worth around €250 million.
Elementum 3D, a developer and supplier of advanced metal additive manufacturing (AM) materials, has achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification for quality management.
Relativity Space, one of the few tech-media-darling 3D printing companies, has moved into a new headquarters located at 3500 E Burnett, Long Beach. The California company employs robotic deposition metal DED additive manufacturing to build an entire launch vehicle: the new 120,000 sq. ft. space will house both business operations and an unprecedented manufacturing facility. Relativity integrates machine learning, software, and robotics with metal additive manufacturing technology and is working to produce its first Terran 1 3D printed rocket, at the Long Beach facility.
Rocket Lab, a small satellite launch company, has announced the successful completion of its 100th Rutherford engine, the world’s first 3D printed, electric turbo-pump-fed engine. The company is celebrating the milestone, emphasizing how far it has come since it first started developing the innovative 3D printed rocket engine in 2013.
Aerospace company Relativity has signed an agreement with NASA and secured an incentive package from the Mississippi Development Authority for the expansion of facilities at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, MS. The historic facility first opened in 1961 and is today NASA’s largest rocket engine testing site.
Space X is in the process of testing the crewed version of its Dragon space capsule that will be capable of ferrying humans to and from the International Space Station. The date for the first test with humans on board(initially scheduled for July) however, will need to be moved up, as the capsule suffered a failure during the activation of its engine abort SuperDraco thrusters and – Space X just confirmed – was destroyed.
NASA technicians and engineers have qualified 3D printing technologies to help in the creation of tailored thermal protection systems for the Space Launch System. The new deep space rocket must be able to endure extreme conditions and temperatures when it launches NASA’s Orion spacecraft and cargo into lunar orbit—3D printed molds could help achieve this needed resistance.
NASA engineers are consistently achieving innovative breakthroughs with additive manufacturing. Most recently, they tested a 2,400 lbf 3D printed copper rocket thrust chamber with a composite overwrap to determine whether the part had the necessary heat and structural load resistance.
Twin robotic arms work together as part of a project to construct what will be the largest, most complex object ever 3D printed in titanium: a test version of the 3-m diameter ‘optic bench’ at the heart of ESA’s Athena X-ray observatory.
Thales Alenia Space, a French-Italian aerospace manufacturer, has announced the next step in its additive manufacturing adoption: series production. The company, which first began its journey with AM in 2015 with 3D printed aluminum antenna brackets for the TürkmenÄlem/MonacoSAT satellite and polymer tube supports for the Iridium NEXT constellation, will begin turning out 3D printed components for telecom satellites built on its all-electric Spacebus Neo platform.
Relativity Space, an aerospace startup with a focus on 3D printed rockets, recently penned a deal with the U.S. Air Force to begin launching its rockets from the Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Launch Complex 16, also known as LC-16, is something of a historic site: it was built in the late 1950s to launch LGM-25 Titan missiles, was used by NASA for some time and has not seen a launch since 1988’s Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
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Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, a space transportation company founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, has released the latest update about its PGA liquid rocket engine. The engine, named after the billionaire business magnate and philanthropist, is being developed with the help of additive manufacturing and could offer an innovative solution for launching vehicles into space.
In a deal worth €75 million, ESA ArianeGroup signed a contract last week to develop a full-scale demonstrator of the new, ultra-low-cost, reusable rocket engine known as Prometheus. The engine is set to power Europe’s future launchers and makes intensive use of advanced manufacturing technologies, including 3D printing, to keep costs down and performances up.