Washington State University engineers have 3D-printed some simple-shaped objects using a simulant of lunar regolith, a mixture of loose dust, rock, and soil that covers solid bedrock. Shown here, Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke drives a core sample tube into the lunar regolith. (Source: NASA)
William, both materials and processes are still in development, as we mentioned in the article. I think a bigger challenge than materials development will be the point you mention about power sources.
Didn't know that printing on the Moon or Mars would require working in a "zero gravity" environment. Low gravity, as compared to earth maybe, but not zero gravity. If you are going to be making stuff to be used on the surface it would make no sense to transport it to space and then back to the surface as that would have a heavy cost in fuel that would be in short supply.
Lunar Regolith sounds a lotlike moon dust, which should be available in adequate quantities on the moon, it seems.
What are the mechanical properties of the parts fabricated thus far, and are they actually useable? I know that the first 3D printed parts were primarily useful for visualizing and not much else. But tha was in 1988.
Producing parts from the materials listed does not seem like they would be very tough, but rather very hard and quite brittle, unless some additional work was done on the mixture prior to laser sintering. I see a real challenge in providing a uniform particle size and uniform chemical composition.
Providing enough power to run the 3D printer is the other challenge that could be an obstacle to using the process onthe moon, although with an adequate solar array enough power should be available.
If more information is available a discussion of the properties of the material will be an interesting presentation indeed.
The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
The airframe of Airbus's A350 XWB consists of a bigger proportion of carbon-fiber-reinforced composite structures than any other commercial jet to date: over 53 percent by weight.
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