NASA and other space agencies have long been leveraging the ideas from additive manufacturing to solve resource issues. It’s not just more feasible to take raw materials and print them in outer space, it’s going to be fundamentally crucial once off-world exploration becomes viable. This is why Australian researchers from Perth’s Curtin University have come up with a 3D printable toolkit for Mars. They’ll submit the toolkit as part of HP’s Mars Home Project for space exploration concepts.
“On Mars, I don’t believe people will be able to afford the luxury of Earth’s manufacturing culture, at least at the beginning of life on Mars,” said Dr. Qassim Saad, the team’s head of product design.“The industry as a whole has to consider all resources used (from the raw material, power usage, to people, power, or space taken up by machines) and actively accommodate and adjust processes while also making the living and working environment of Mars a liveable place and enable people to meet all their needs.”
There are many things to consider for printing tools in space, like methods. Powder-based methods can be wholly inappropriate and high heat or lasers can be potentially deadly. On the other hand, it’s easier to make prints in a Martian environment where you may need fewer support structures. Other considerations they had to make were that of weight and gravity calculations. Hammers and spades, after all, need precise measurement for the force they can apply. Making tools by Earth’s standards will make them less effective for repair and construction on Mars.
3D Printable Planetary Exploration Toolkit
Much like the 3D Printed Habitat Competition, HP is launching its own Mars Home Project for printing the ideal outer space abode. The competition aims to reimagine life on Mars with a sustainable and realistic outlook. The various teams are asked to imagine the future of transportation or construction for extra-terrestrial standards.
The Curtin University student team has designed a digital library of physical tools and utensils for on-field printing. They’ve also made every model ideal for editing and improvement to suit a range of different environmental challenges. Seeing as how they have no actually been to Mars, it is a wise choice to keep the designs malleable for potential upgrades.
The team from Curtin University used an HP Jet Fusion to print a nylon-based rock hammer using AutoCAD. While these tools can be quite heavy for space travel (costing fuel), their printed forms are not.
“If an object is in surplus to requirements or bulky, it could be ground down into a base form and reused, then reprinted when it was needed again,” Saad said. “An example is if you were to ‘move house.’ The cost of moving all your worldly possessions would be inefficient, so the recycling and rebuilding process would occur.”
Novel concepts like this will propel the future of space habitation. Of course, advanced lightweight materials also come into play with future types of 3D printing. The researchers are looking into these materials and ideas like hybrid printing as well. While the current cost of space travel is high, lighter aircraft and cargo can save literally millions.
Featured image courtesy of Curtin University, retrieved via Design News’ Website.
