3-D printed part (gas-thruster assembly for a small satellite) using cyanate ester 221
Seeing this article today on Carbon’s 3D printed parts for NASA’s SEEKER mission started my internet plunge into the applications of 3D printing technology in aerospace applications. The specific part being printed is a small 10cm x 10cm part that interfaces with gas thrusters (very cold gas - material must be able to withstand extremely high pressures and low temperatures!) and holds and protects the electronic guts needed for the CubeSats to navigate in space. The resin used to print the part is cyanate ester 221, which is one of the materials I considered using when I printed dishwasher wheels to replace the missing wheels when I moved into a new appartment in SF back in September (my housemate ended up beating me to the punch- he took my idea of printing a replacement wheel and he used the resin he had at his company- which despite having far inferior mechanical/thermal properties, the wheels have suffered minimal deformation in over 6 months of dishwasher cycling!).
After appreciating the application of CE 221 in this CubeSat mission, I was naturally lead to the 3D Printed Centennial Challange, which is a contest sponsored by NASA to design and fabricate a living space for future manned missions to Mars. Please check out the link here. The design winner has already been selected (although I prefer the 2nd place participant’s cylindrical design, and use of PLA and basalt fiber material), and the fabrication challenge will be going on April 29-May 4th which means it is starting today! For some reason it is very difficult to find out where this challenge will physically be taking place, however some Twitter sleuthing points to Peoria, IL as the location of the build contest, where the top 5 placers will be challenged to put their design to the test and actually construct their designed dwellings.
You can find videos from 9 of the contestants (including the winner) here:
https://www.bradley.edu/sites/challenge/
It will be very interesting to see how the large-scale 3D printing works out! I’m also curious why they chose Peoria, IL, which has a very different climate than frigid, CO2-rich, windy, Mars.
Also let’s note that this Wednesday, SpaceX is launching a supply craft to the ISS! Link to article with more deets
Launch Wednesday
Rocket: SpaceX Falcon 9
Mission: Dragon ISS resupply
Launch Time: 3:59 a.m.
Launch Window: Instantaneous
Launch Complex: 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Landing: Yes, Of Course I Still Love You drone ship