Posted on 12/21/2014 1:25:28 PM PST by shove_it
For the first time ever, hardware designed on the ground has been emailed to space to meet the needs of an astronaut. From a computer in California, Mike Chen of Made In Space and colleagues just 3D-printed a ratcheting socket wrench on the International Space Station. “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore (who goes by “Butch”) mention over the radio that he needed one,” Chen writes in Medium this week. So they designed one and sent it up.
“The socket wrench we just manufactured is the first object we designed on the ground and sent digitally to space, on the fly,” he adds. It’s a lot faster to send data wirelessly on demand than to wait for a physical object to arrive via rockets, which can take months or even years.
The team started by designing the tool on a computer, then converting it into a 3D-printer-ready format. That’s then sent to NASA, which transmits the wrench to the space station. Once the code is received by the 3D printer, the wrench is manufactured: Plastic filament is heated and extruded layer by layer. The ISS tweeted this photo earlier this week, and you can see more pictures of the very cool wrench-printing process here.
Located on the campus of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Made In Space built the first 3D printer for microgravity, and it was launched to the ISS in September. Within a month, the astronauts 3D-printed their first object: a replacement faceplate for the printer’s casing (pictured below)...
(Excerpt) Read more at iflscience.com ...
But consider the world just 100 years ago. If you told somebody from 1914 that everybody in the world would be able to communicate with each other instantaneously and that movies and music would be sent to a device that could be held in their hands, and that they would never get lost because they would be able to communicate with satellites in space that could tell them exactly where they are and where they need to go, and that all the world's information would be available at your fingertips through a system called "internet", they would smile indulgently and motion off to the side for men in white coats to come take you away.
3D Printing is a bastardization of the process called stereolithography which includes a variety of processes, including Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which can fuse metal powder to create objects much more durable than plastics. There’s also Selective Laser Melting and E-Beam Melting. The whole topic of 3D Printing is mangled by non-technical writers who don’t take the time to learn what they’re talking about, but the idea of creating metal parts onboard a spacecraft is entirely feasible, requiring only a stock of raw material rather than hundreds of already-manufactured parts. That’s what the OP referred to asteroids as a source of raw material.
You can do metal with 3-d printers. Sintering and curing.
freaky but cool.
3D metal printing exists. They’ve already 3D printed a working 1911 from metal. They’re now producing a 10mm 1911 completely 3D printed of metal: http://3dprint.com/21109/3d-print-metal-gun-reason/
Not a ratchet wrench. It’s a short breaker bar shaped like a ratchet wrench. There is no moving parts in it. And I’m sure it will likely strip or break after any serious use. Purely a NASA PR stunt.
So once you have a 3d printer, a recycler, and some plactic, they can keep manufacturing what they need at the moment, and get rid of things they don't use much.
“3D-printed a ratcheting socket wrench”
“The socket wrench we just manufactured”
Was it really ratcheting? It doesn’t look like it. Maybe the second description is more correct.
Yeah, you could print large spaceship hulls with concrete made from mined asteroid material.
I’ve also seen demonstrations of potential structures on mars using the abundant sulfur instead of water to make martian concrete. (melt the sulfur to fuse the material)
Maybe. I've been experimenting with 3D printers, I own two. PLA is the rage for making toys, but i found it fragile. ABS is better and more flexible, but I still had problems with some parts breaking under stress. I find that nylon is stronger and more durable. I join metal components with the nylon to create very strong tools. The parts are designed with holes and slots for the metal. Then I insert steel or aluminum rivet nuts and bolts. You can twist and flex the nylon and it won't break, unlike ABS plastic. I also use sheet metal, cutting and bending to suit the parts I need.
In time, NASA will beef up the 3D tools and machines for space, and it will be very successful. The only problem is that the Chinese may get it done first.
A big plus for 3D printing in space is the microgravity. I've had more than one failure trying to 3D print objects because of gravity's effects pulling down on freshly printed parts. Before printing your designs, you have to carefully plan support structures and decide which way to rotate the object in three dimensions and place it on the build table, to minimize effects of gravity. I hate the work in removing support structures after printing. No such need in space.
I saw them make a crescent wrench on TV- fully functional- you could turn the screwpiece and it would expand and contract.
What is the strength of one of these wrenches?
3D printing with embedded carbon filaments is as strong as aluminum. https://markforged.com/
Recyling filament sounds like a good idea, but I stay away from it. There have been hobbyists giving away plans for making your own plastic recycler to make new filament, for years. Problem is, current 3D printer extruders are very fragile mechanisms if they aren't fed well-made filament. Bubbles, contaminants, moisture and imperfections can cause feed problems and jams. Once a bubble pops (sometimes caused by moisture in the filament), your extruder nozzle can get clogged and burn the filament within, and can damage the feed mechanism. So if astronauts use recycled filament, I hope they carry along extra nozzles.
FYI - I replaced the feed mechanisms on my printers with 3D printed versions, so no problem there. Jammed nozzles and tubes can be cleaned out with a micro drill, but it's a lot of work. Easier to just use replacement parts. Even better, use only high-quality manufactured filament (and keep it dry).
Very tough to pass any certified structural aircraft part from sintered metal (3D printing method from powdered metal). It is not predictable and not in the Mil Handbook 5. I am sure there are some working on it but I don’t think anything outside of experimental non-structural or testing for a long long time.
As for the printed part in the space station. I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the union goons who will sue over a non union manufacturing job being outsourced to orbit.
The technological leap is appreciated, but the communications aspect could be explained with the fact that you improved upon the telegraph, AM radio, telephone, and electric circuits in 1914. If you took the time back to say Benjamin Franklin, before you had any of those, ten you would really be crazy.
As for converting matter to energy and vice versa, they have experimentally done that with particle accelerators that consume massive loads of electricity to make the simplest of matter and antimatter particles. In fact, so much energy goes into forming matter and/or antimatter that well, even massive power plants would do little to none, there is also massive energy to keep antimatter from touching any matter, including air. The raw energy of an antimatter-matter reaction would not even run a light bulb. Just because at best, CERN only formed a few anti hydrogen atoms at the end of the 20 th century. Cutting out all the carefully measured wood, plastic, and metal parts is what 3d printers do, and do well, so hopefully we can send guys on ships or into space with some raw material so they can let the printer do the fine carving.
Uh Huh.
Not bad, but can they email duct tape?
Use a drone!
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