Space Launch System Using Futuristic Tech to Build Rockets

A state-of-the-art machine at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center creates intricate metal parts for America's next heavy-lift rocket.

Transcript

00:00:02 Ken Cooper: What we've got here is the latest in direct metal 3-D printing, if you will. We call it additive manufacturing now. It's the official term. What it is, it takes fine layers of metal powder and welds those together with a laser beam to fuse a three-dimensional

00:00:16 object right from a computer file. It's like artistic welding, if you will. Selective Laser Melting is the official term on the patent. That kind of describes what's going on. You are selectively melting the powder and wherever the laser touches it turns to solid and the rest of it stays

00:00:33 powder that you dump out afterwards. Right now, we're trying to qualify this to build rocket motor parts. Basically, what additive manufacturing gives you is the ability to build very complex shapes that couldn't be built other ways or just to simplify building complex shapes. It

00:00:48 really doesn't care about the geometry. Really the deciding factor in whether the machine can do it or not is the size of the part. We wanted to have the best technology out there because we are shooting to put these into human-rated rocket systems. Andy Hardin: When we build parts,

00:01:05 we go through a lot of tests, a lot of inspection. We do a lot of engineering builds first to make sure we have the process wrung out. There's always weld problems that you have to deal with and there's going to be problems with this that we'll have to work out, too, but this has the potential to eliminate

00:01:22 a lot of those problems and it has the potential to reduce the cost by as much as half in some cases on a lot of parts. Everybody was really excited and now it's time to start the real work, which is making parts and building the material properties, getting the tests done. It's an exciting time for the next few years.