Sparks Fly as NASA Pushes the Limits of 3-D Printing
Technology
Engineers just completed hot-fire testing with two
3-D printed rocket injectors. Certain features of the rocket components were
designed to increase rocket engine performance. The injector mixed liquid oxygen
and gaseous hydrogen together, which combusted at temperatures over 6,000
degrees Fahrenheit, producing more than 20,000 pounds of
thrust.
Image Credit:
NASA photo/David Olive
NASA has successfully tested the most complex rocket engine parts ever
designed by the agency and printed with additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing,
on a test stand at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama.
NASA engineers pushed the limits of technology by designing a rocket engine
injector --a highly complex part that sends propellant into the engine -- with
design features that took advantage of 3-D printing. To make the parts, the
design was entered into the 3-D printer's computer. The printer then built each
part by layering metal powder and fusing it together with a laser, a process
known as selective laser melting.
The additive manufacturing process allowed rocket designers to create an
injector with 40 individual spray elements, all printed as a single component
rather than manufactured individually. The part was similar in size to injectors
that power small rocket engines and similar in design to injectors for large
engines, such as the RS-25 engine that will power NASA's Space Launch System
(SLS) rocket, the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take
humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars.
Youtube Override:
3-D Printed Rocket Injector Roars to Life: The most
complex 3-D printed rocket injector ever built by NASA roars to life on the test
stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama.
"We wanted to go a step beyond just testing an injector and demonstrate how
3-D printing could revolutionize rocket designs for increased system
performance," said Chris Singer, director of Marshall's Engineering Directorate.
"The parts performed exceptionally well during the tests."
Using traditional manufacturing methods, 163 individual parts would be made
and then assembled. But with 3-D printing technology, only two parts were
required, saving time and money and allowing engineers to build parts that
enhance rocket engine performance and are less prone to failure.
Two rocket injectors were tested for five seconds each, producing 20,000
pounds of thrust. Designers created complex geometric flow patterns that allowed
oxygen and hydrogen to swirl together before combusting at 1,400 pounds per
square inch and temperatures up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA engineers used
this opportunity to work with two separate companies -- Solid Concepts in
Valencia, California, and Directed Manufacturing in Austin, Texas. Each company
printed one injector.
"One of our goals is to collaborate with a variety of companies and establish
standards for this new manufacturing process," explained Marshall propulsion
engineer Jason Turpin. "We are working with industry to learn how to take
advantage of additive manufacturing in every stage of space hardware
construction from design to operations in space. We are applying everything we
learn about making rocket engine components to the Space Launch System and other
space hardware."
Additive manufacturing not only helped engineers build and test a rocket
injector with a unique design, but it also enabled them to test faster and
smarter. Using Marshall's in-house capability to design and produce small 3-D
printed parts quickly, the propulsion and materials laboratories can work
together to apply quick modifications to the test stand or the rocket
component.
"Having an in-house additive manufacturing capability allows us to look at
test data, modify parts or the test stand based on the data, implement changes
quickly and get back to testing," said Nicholas Case, a propulsion engineer
leading the testing. "This speeds up the whole design, development and testing
process and allows us to try innovative designs with less risk and cost to
projects."
Marshall engineers have tested increasingly complex injectors, rocket nozzles
and other components with the goal of reducing the manufacturing complexity and
the time and cost of building and assembling future engines. Additive
manufacturing is a key technology for enhancing rocket designs and enabling
missions into deep space.
For more information about SLS, visit:
NASA Administrator Marks Completion of World’s Largest
Spacecraft Welding Tool for Space Launch System
NASA’s new Vertical Assembly Center (VAC), a 170-foot-high marvel of
machinery that will be used to assemble elements of the agency's Space Launch
System (SLS), now is complete and ready to weld parts for the rocket that will
send humans to an asteroid and Mars.
Media are invited to join NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the ribbon
cutting for the enormous new tool at 11 a.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 12, at the
agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the core stage is being
built. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.
Bolden and other officials from NASA and Boeing, the prime contractor for the
SLS core stage and avionics, will be available for a brief media opportunity
following the ceremony.
The Vertical Assembly Center will be used to join domes, rings and barrels
segments to complete the SLS fuel tanks. The tool also will be used to perform
evaluations of the completed welds. Towering more than 200 feet tall, with a
diameter of 27.6 feet, the core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen to feed the vehicle’s RS-25 engines.
Bolden also will visit NASA's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis,
Mississippi, following the Michoud events, and will be available to talk to
media at 2:15 p.m. CDT at the base of the historic B-2 Test Stand, along with
other NASA representatives. The B-2 Test Stand was used to test the S-1C stage
on the Saturn V moon rocket and the Main Propulsion Test Article, the
configuration of three main engines flown on space shuttle missions. The stand
will next be used to test the core stage of SLS and its configuration of four
RS-25 engines.
Media who wish to attend both the Michoud and Stennis events must contact
Chip Howat at carl.j.howat@nasa.gov
or 504-214-6745 no later than 4 p.m. CDT Thursday, Sept. 11. Media must arrive
at 13800 Old Gentilly Road, Bldg. 101 visitor's lobby, by 9:15 a.m. Friday,
Sept. 12, for access to the facility. Official media credentials with photo
identification are required for access.
Those interested only in attending the Stennis event must contact Paul
Foerman at paul.foerman-1@nasa.gov
or 228-688-1880 no later than 4 p.m. CDT Thursday, Sept. 11.
For more information about SLS, visit:
For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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