| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
RedOrbit exclusive: NASA 3D printing and future implications
Emily Bills for redOrbit.com – @emilygbills
With many people still thinking that 3D printing is simply a novelty and only good for printing flimsy toys, we at redOrbit decided we wanted to inform the masses about this breakthrough technology as it is on the cusp of exploding.
We sat down with Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s 3D printing in zero-G project manager, and discussed the current status of 3D printing on the ISS as well as the future implications it could have on the terrestrial level.
3D printing in space: What’s the big deal?
We are extremely limited with what we can send to space for many reasons. At $10,000 a pound, sending parts to space is over-the-top expensive. NASA has been working for the past 30 years to decrease this cost, but have had no such luck.
There’s also an issue of how violent the launch process is. In order to get a payload up to the ISS safe and sound, you have to structurally beef it up and add a lot of mass to it, which in turn jacks up the cost significantly.
In regards to a future Mars or deep space mission, sending up any parts or tools would be impossible. Remember how hard it is to pack for a weeklong trip to the beach and how you always seem to forget a necessity? There are no Walmarts in space.
Werkheiser describes it as being invaluable, stating, “For exploration missions it becomes a lot more than a cool thing to use as a backup. It becomes an enabler to allow the mission to be sustainable.”
ISS printer vs. Earth printer
Made in Space, the company who built the printer on station, figured out that microgravity has pretty much the same affect on the actual extrusion process (picture a hot glue gun squirting out hot glue) as a terrestrial printer does. This makes the mechanics of the printers very similar.
The printer looks very similar to one you might find in a store here on Earth, too. While NASA looked for a commercial version to send to space, it ended up costing less just make one with their exact specifications on design and safety.
“The biggest challenges are that we have less real estate which leads to smaller machines, and we need autonomous operations because astronaut time is very valuable,” said Werkheiser. “And safety of course is the top priority.”
NASA believes that the printers work much in the same way, however they just unboxed the 3D printed samples and will have to run them through some tests to make sure they held up structurally.
“We have a detailed test plan because the parts externally look the same, but we want to see if internally the bonding between the layers were any different. We want to make sure that [space] doesn’t change or alter the structural properties or the mechanics of how strong the part is. It could even create a stronger part!”
Not looking like science fiction anymore
With this technology that is about to boom, organizations and even countries are trying to take advantage of its unparalleled and infinite amount of applications.
NASA and the Army Corps of Engineers have joined together to create an additive construction project. The army is interested in printing with concrete or sand to create shelters for remote locations or in emergency situations.
China is starting to use 3D printing quite a bit, as is the state of Hawaii. All of the concrete in Hawaii has to be imported, so they want to use this technology to lower costs. Because Hawaiian soil is basalt based and resembles a Martian soil, Hawaii is looking into using its soil to print its structures. And speaking of Martian soil…
According to Werkheiser, NASA is already planning to use Martian soil for 3D printing when we get to Mars. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunstville, Alabama is currently creating large structures out of Martian regolith simulant.
“I think it’s great because there’s a lot of leveraging we do like with the corps of engineers or with Hawaii but then also on the NASA specific side we can leverage together growing the technology and the capability for the many terrestrial uses.”
Finally, NASA has a group at Ames Research Center in California that does synthetic biology, and they are also looking at using 3D printing. For example, there are certain bacteria in plants that produce metals and metal byproducts. They have extracted these metals and are currently doing terrestrial experimentation to use the byproducts to print printable electronics. What will they think of next?
Next steps for upgrading the 3D printer
“We have a roadmap all the way up to a Mars mission,” Werkheiser said.
But for the short-term goals, later on this year, Made In Space is planning to launch the Additive Manufacturing Facility. NASA will not actually own this printer, but will simply be a customer of it. It will have a larger print volume and use a stronger plastic called ultem (a plastic used in airplane seats).
After this, NASA plans to fly an in-space recycler and have it work in conjunction with the printer. This recycler would ideally be able to take 3D printed items and turn them back into the raw materials for printing. They are also working on what metal processes might work in microgravity – a much trickier feat than plastics.
As 3D printing catapults along, Niki is sure that it will be revolutionary to life here on Earth.
“I do think that in the future, when my kids have kids, they’ll find it hard to believe that when something broke around the house that they had to go to the store, they couldn’t just design it and 3D print it.”
She believes it will be a very disruptive and rapidly evolving technology, so hold on to your hats, folks!
—–
Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.
redOrbit.com
offers Science, Space, Technology, Health news, videos, images and
reference information. For the latest science news, space news,
technology news, health news visit redOrbit.com frequently. Learn
something new every day.”
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1113369053/nasa-3d-printing-earth-and-beyond-041015/
When I searched for 3D printers on the eBay, I found very many of them as well as their spare parts and accessories, from small pen printers costing tens of dollars to large industrial applications of several thousands of dollars. It seems that the 3D printing is really an exploding new business. It deserves to be watched.