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NASA's 3D Printing Is Fast-Tracking The Manned Mars Mission

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NASA is closing in on manufacturing a phenomenal, 3D-printed rocket launch engine, and the lead engineer says it is bringing ever closer the manned journey to Mars .

Elizabeth Robertson, propulsion engineer the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, tells me that the megathrust engine, and similar 3D printed metal projects, can now be completed significantly more cheaply and quickly. This is essential as NASA accelerates its production for a manned Mars mission by the 2030s.

“The ultimate goal is to assemble and test a liquid engine, capable of producing 30,000 pounds of thrust by using components made largely with additive manufacturing [3D printing],” she says.

Breakthrough

NASA has just hit a 3D printing breakthrough, with Robertson and her team successfully testing an additively manufactured turbo pump - one of the most complex parts of the launch engine. Data from the tests will inform 3D printing of other metallic parts that will form the engine.

Robertson, a wife and a mother of two young boys, has her sights firmly set across space, as the team tests other fuels. “Moving from liquid hydrogen to methane on the turbo pump allows the hardware to be used as a springboard for a variety of missions,” she says, “including landing on Mars.”

3D printing is likely to enable incredible changes in NASA’s speed to success in new missions: what took years to build now takes months, and is often done at a tenth of the cost.

It also turns the design process on its head. Instead of completing advanced designs before manufacturing, engineers can now use conceptual ideas to build early units - which can then be tested in practice.

3D printing also removes traditional design concept barriers, Robertson adds. “We are no longer constrained to tooling access and straight lines. Cooling passages can be built into housings, multiple parts can be built as a single piece, and wall thicknesses can vary over a part to add or remove strength as necessary.”

The process also sets the stage for a more open market in which smaller private companies can work with NASA on the new initiatives, further speeding time to success, she says. “We now have a technology that could help make designs more efficient, more reliable and less expensive. This could lower the barriers to entry for non-traditional commercial partners to compete with more traditional partners and result in better, more affordable engines.”

As the planned date for NASA’s manned Mars mission comes ever closer, 3D printing is becoming indispensable to meeting the target.

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