3D Printer Aboard ISS Creates the First 3D-Printed Object in Space
Paving the way for future long-term space expeditions, the International Space Station's 3D printer has manufactured the first 3D-printed object in space. In this video, Niki Werkheiser, NASA's 3D Printing Project Manager, talks with Marshall Space Flight Center's Bill Hubscher about the first test run of the International Space Station's 3D Printer. On November 24, 2014, ground controllers sent the printer the command to make the first printed part - a faceplate of the extruder's casing. This demonstrated that the printer can make replacement parts for itself. The 3D printer uses a process formally known as additive manufacturing to heat a relatively low-temperature plastic filament and extrude it one layer at a time to build the part defined in the design file sent to the machine. Part adhesion on the tray was stronger than anticipated, which could mean layer bonding is different in microgravity, a question the team will investigate as future parts are printed.
Transcript
00:00:01 so in a uh typical office setting you may uh think about uh the installation and the setup of a new printer not really always cause for celebration sometimes cause for consternation but when your office is like wilmore's orbiting more than 200 miles above the ground the scientists around the world will take notice so today we are joined by Bill hubsher out at the payload
00:00:24 operations and integration Center at the Marshall space flight center in Huntsville Alabama who's going to tell us a little bit more on the installation of this first 3D printer in space Bill thanks a lot Dan as we go about science activities on the space station as you mentioned there's very little that we can call routine there are many challenges about living and working in
00:00:43 space including when a part or a tool is broken or simply is is not working correctly and the spare part is 200 miles away here on the surface of the Earth while explorers traveling Mars or or traveling to Mars or to asteroids will face these same challenges but they won't be able to get any of her supplies from a from a supply ship the station as you mentioned is the ideal laboratory to
00:01:05 test these Technologies to help us live and work off the Earth well this morning on the space station Commander Butch Wilmore is installing a brand new device that once installed could change the way we handle fixing problems in space a brand new 3D printer here to talk a little bit about it this morning is project manager for the 3D printing project here at Marshall Nikki worker n
00:01:25 thanks for making the time this morning pleasure it's a a busy and exciting morning for you and your team tell us a little about what Butch is doing first thing this morning so today is a very big day for us uh this morning first thing what they did is they took the 3D printer out of the stoage location where it has been since the SpaceX 4 launch um and they've actually installed it into
00:01:43 the microgravity science laboratory uh glove box um there it's really important obviously we're getting all the electronics hooked up making sure everything's functional testing the commanding also actually the printer has two windows um and we're we're placing the MSG cameras very closely to those windows so we can monitor the actual ual Extrusion Extrusion process um as the
00:02:03 prints and the layers are being deposited we'll be able to see that in detail um and then later on today once all of that is is set up and we'll actually print our first uh calibration coupon we'll probably print a couple of these um and this is part of the functional checkout for the printer itself just to make sure everything is functioning correctly and that we get uh
00:02:22 the the machine itself calibrated before we go into the full operations so that's about the size of a poster stamp turn turn it on edge so we can see how thin that is yes it is this is how many layers do you think that is oh goodness um probably about 25 or 30 and this is a standard kind of calibration coupon that we would use on the ground as well so once the printer is installed and
00:02:42 calibrated what happens next so next we'll actually start our full Suite of of printing engineering test coupons um you'll start seeing things like uh this and and this which are standard uh tinsil coupons that we use on the ground uh things like uh tinsil C coupon uh for testing strength of of in space uh Printing and the range coupon to see the tolerances that we can print um on orbit
00:03:09 and the variety of sizes of of holes little variety of sizes to see how small and how large we can go yes within a tolerance all right so um what do you think the team will learn from from these variety of prints that you've been showing us the real objective of this first phase of the technology demonstration is just to verify that the process works in microgravity the same
00:03:27 way it does on the ground uh NASA and space have flown parabolic flights and tested this but you only get the short spurts of microgravity so being able to test this on space station and print complete parts and microgravity as you mentioned uh space station is the actually the only platform where we're able to test this technology before we use it in further out exploration
00:03:48 missions now these objects and some of these others uh were were built right here in Marshall's additive manufacturing area uh in the printer that is actually on station right yes actually uh so after we finished the flight flight Certification testing and the integration testing at marshall in the flight unit before it flew we printed the full Suite of of samples
00:04:07 just like we're printing on orbit uh so that we have those Ground Control samples then when the parts are returned we'll be able to do detailed analysis to study those results and do an Apples to Apples comparison right now this is another sample you've picked up here um some looks like the actual honest of goodness tools yes so I mentioned the first phase is is really focused around
00:04:25 those engineering uh samples that we'll be studying but then the second phase once we see that the process works in microgravity the same way um we'll turn its focus more toward the parts that we print and demonstrating their utilization on Space Station well I know NASA worked with a a group of young Engineers from the company maen space to design and and test the printer uh
00:04:45 what's their role in the upcoming printer operations so Maiden space has been fantastic um we this project is actually made possible through a a small business Innovation research contract um where mpace actually designed and built the printer uh with NASA involved throughout the entire process through the design and the certification um to provide insight and guidance on flight
00:05:05 certification and we actually also performed all of the the testing here at Marshall uh m space is located in Silicon Valley and they are actually today going to be doing all the commanding to the printer on orbit so they'll have Direct Control then absolutely from the ground we try to limit astronaut time as much as possible now while this is only a a technical
00:05:25 demonstration if you will of of 3D printing in space why is this technology so important to exploration AB great question so this is actually truly a historical moment um since the Inception of the human space program we have been completely dependent on launching every single thing we need from Earth to space um so it's a very constrained uh supply and demand chain um for exploration
00:05:48 missions you mentioned earlier that's just not plausible it's not feasible so I think we're making history by for the first time ever being able to make what we need when we need it in space and even though it may sound a little like science fiction uh we're actually able to email our Hardware to space instead of launching it it's kind of cool that is cool thanks Nikki very much we look
00:06:09 forward to seeing some of these samples come back on on the return flight of SpaceX Dragon capsule in early 2015