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First metal 3D printer for space makes it to ISS

The first metal 3D printer for space, developed by Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA), will soon be tested aboard the Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS). It could be a real game changer for manufacturing in space and future missions to the Moon or Mars.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an industrial process that has opened up new ways of looking at how parts are designed. It has many uses from the day-to-day to the surprising: from simple repairs to bio-ink implants, from printing whole houses to producing spacecraft parts.

The flight model of the 3D metal printer that launched on NG-20 on Jan. 30, 2024, headed for the ISS. It will be the first 3D printer on the Space Station printing in metal. The ESA-led project, with Airbus as the main contractor, will lead the way for a future were astronauts can print tools and parts in space. Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft carried the printer and other supplies and experiments. It hooked up to the ISS on Feb. 1. [Credit: ESA]

 

 

 

 

There are already several plastic 3D printers on board the ISS, the first of which arrived in 2014. Astronauts have already used them to replace or repair plastic parts, since one of the major problems of everyday life in space is the supply of equipment, which can take months to arrive. However, not everything can be made from plastic.

This logistical constraint will intensify on future Moon and Mars stations in the next few decades. Even though the raw material still needs to be launched, printing the part is still more efficient than transporting it whole up to its final destination.

"The metal 3D printer will bring new on-orbit manufacturing capabilities, including the possibility to produce load-bearing structural parts that are more resilient than a plastic equivalent," says Gwenaelle Aridon, Airbus Space Assembly lead engineer. "Astronauts will be able to directly manufacture tools such as wrenches or mounting interfaces that could connect several parts together. The flexibility and rapid availability of 3D printing will greatly improve astronauts' autonomy."

According to ESA, the new metal printer "will be printing using a type of stainless steel commonly used in medical implants and water treatment due to its good resistance to corrosion. The stainless steel wire is fed into the printing area, which is heated by a high-power laser, about a million times more powerful than your average laser pointer. As the wire dips into the melt pool, the end of the wire melts and metal is then added to the print."

Materials engineer Advenit Makaya from the ESA's Directorate of Technology, Engineering, and Quality, says the melt pool of the print process "is very small, in the order of a millimeter across, so that the liquid metal's surface tension holds it securely in place in weightlessness. Even so, the melting point of stainless steel is about 1400 °C, so the printer operates within a fully sealed box, preventing excess heat or fumes from reaching the crew of the Space Station."

The challenges of printing metal in space
While the process of 3D printing has been mastered on Earth, printing metal in space presents its own set of technical challenges. Sebastien Girault, metal 3D printer system engineer at Airbus, explains, "The first challenge with this technology demonstrator was size. On Earth, current metal 3D printers are installed in a minimum ten-square-meter laboratory," he says. "To create the prototype for the ISS, we had to shrink the printer to the size of a washing machine." This miniaturization is needed in order to fit inside the rack in which the printer will be housed on board the ISS' Columbus Laboratory. "At this size, we can print parts with a volume of nine centimeters high and five centimeters wide," Girault says.

The metal 3D printer for space was designed and built by Airbus under a program created and funded by the ESA. It will be inserted inside Columbus, the European lab attached to the ISS. [Credit: Airbus]

 

 

 

 

The second challenge is safety: protecting the ISS from the aggressive printing environment caused by the laser and the heat it generates. The printer sits in a sealed metal box, which acts like a safe. The melting point of metal alloys compatible with this process can be far over 1,200 °C, compared to around 200 °C for plastic, which implies drastic thermal control.

"Gravity management is also key, which is why we chose wire-based printing technology. The wire is independent of gravity, unlike the powder-based system, which always has to fall to the ground," Girault says.

Whether it's plastic or metal, fumes are emitted that have to be dealt with by filters and captured inside the machine so they do not contaminate the air inside the ISS. "Safety and contamination are key drivers for us not only for the ISS, but for future use on the Moon," Aridon says.

According to ESA, "Four interesting shapes have been chosen to test the performance of the Metal 3D printer. These first objects will be compared to the same shapes printed on the ground [back on Earth], called reference prints, to see how the space environment affects the printing process. The four prints are all smaller than a soda can in size, weigh less than 250 g per print, and take about two to four weeks to print. The scheduled print time is limited to four hours daily, due to noise regulations on the Space Station -- the printer's fans and motor of the printer are relatively noisy."

EXCELLENT VIDEO from VideoFromSpace: 3D printing metal in space! Tech developed by Airbus. [Credit: VideoFromSpace]

Key figures:

• Printer size: 80 x 70 x 40 cm
• Printed parts size: 9 x 5 cm
• Raw Material used: stainless steel wire
• Application/use: Mounting interfaces and mechanical parts (including tools) -- repair or manufacture
• Number of parts to be printed in space: 4 specimens
• Time needed to print a part: around 40 hours

Is metal printing suited to a microgravity environment?
This is one of the questions the team is setting out to answer. Two printers will be used for this experiment: the "flight model" inside the ISS, and the "engineering model" on Earth. The astronauts will print four samples in space, which will be sent back to Earth for analysis. The same specimens will be manufactured using the engineering model printer. "In order to evaluate the effects of microgravity, ESA and Danish Technical University will perform mechanical strength and bending tests and microstructural analysis on the parts made in space and compare them to the other specimens," Girault explains.

This image shows metal 3D specimens already printed in a test on Earth. Note how they were printed on a disk plate (spool) that turns to help form the part in space. [Credit: Airbus]

 

 

Animated gif: The Airbus metal 3D printer in operation on Earth. [Credit: Courtesy ESA]

The Moon in our sights
Metal 3D printing on board the ISS will help improve the understanding of the quality of metal printing in orbit and provide valuable insights into operating a metal 3D printer in space. Printing structural parts in space is an important step in preparing the technologies humankind will need for a sustained presence on the Moon.

"Increasing the level of maturity and automation of additive manufacturing in space could be a game changer for supporting life beyond Earth," Aridon says. "Thinking beyond the ISS, the applications could be amazing. Imagine a metal printer using transformed regolith [moondust] or recycled materials to build a lunar base!"

The metal 3D printer was developed by a consortium comprising Airbus Defense and Space, AddUp, Cranfield University, and Highftech Engineering under a program of and funded by the ESA.

Sources: Airbus, European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, VideoFromSpace

Published February 2024

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