I believe that the dorkiest single statement I ever made in my life — and believe me, I’ve made plenty — was when i confessed that I had broken my 3D printer while making a replica of the original Star Trek phaser. While I’m sure that everyone will be relieved to find that I managed to get my printer back on track, completed the phaser (and even 3D-printed some parts to make the 3D printer work better in the future) that’s not why I’m bringing this up.
Most 3D printers today are a long way from being the replicators of Next Generation dreams. They’re slow. They handle a limited number of materials. And while they’re getting much better—the one that popped a fan cover while phaser-ing beats the heck out of the previous one that ripped its own guts out while trying to reproduce a trilobite—they’re still too finicky and proprietary to be part of the average home. I have used mine to make some genuinely useful items, from brackets to help mount a camera to the cleats that lash down ropes on my little sailboat, but it really is still more of an amusement than a must-have.
However, an article from this week’s Nature suggests that could change in the near future.
A prototype 3D printer has for the first time combined several printing methods to enable researchers to produce devices out of multiple materials in a single print run. So far the machine has created basic electronic devices, but the technology brings materials scientists a step closer to their goal of printing complex equipment such as robots or smartphones.
Calling the device a printer is really a disservice. Not only does it combine multiple techniques used in current 3D printers to lay down material in layers, this device as tiny robot arms for flipping, moving and inserting components.
And yet … I’m going to show you a company that’s doing something with a 3D printer that’s genuinely amazing. This time, you will be impressed.
Come inside and see.
The just-passed spending bill was surprisingly kind to science in several areas, from boosting the National Science Foundation to increased funding for the National Institutes of Health. But among the winners was NASA, which got a budget of $20.7 billion dollars — that’s not just a billion increase, it’s $1.6 billion more than Donald Trump requested.
The breakdown of those dollars show particular support for two projects: NASA’s “big rocket” Space Launch System that’s designed to get human beings back on the moon (and possibly beyond), as well as programs supporting launch of more planetary probes.
Of NASA’s billions, $3.5 billion goes to the Space Launch System and the Orion crew capsule. The funding could help get the project back on schedule, and was sold on the idea that more funds now would help stave off more cost overruns later. SLS, like a lot of NASA projects, has fallen victim to changing priorities and fluctuating budges that make it easy to get behind, and eventually result in higher costs—or abandoned projects. Among other things, the revised budget should allow NASA to build the launch facility that’s needed to fly the SLS in anything other than it’s smallest test configuration … which seems important.
This increased budget should be good news for Boeing, which is the lead contractor on SLS. And it may allow NASA to beat the current schedule that doesn’t put astronauts on the SLS until 2023 … if everything goes well.
The next big upgrade in the race to find planets around other stars will be the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). NASA has slotted TESS for launch on the afternoon of April 16. It will be flying on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (And someone from Daily Kos has, ahem, approved media credentials to be at the launch … hopefully more about that next week.)
Other Space Agency News
Soyuz MS-08 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday using a Soyuz-ST-B launcher. The three man crew — Americans Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel along with Russian Oleg Artemyev — successfully docked with the ISS on Friday. The arrival of the Expedition 55 crew brings the ISS up to full staff of six.
Not only is it incredible to think that there have now been 55 crew launches to the ISS, but for all three of the astronauts making the trip this week, this was their second visit to the station. The last time Arnold was there was back in 2009, during the station’s assembly, when he made two prolonged spacewalks. He should get to spend more time indoors on this trip.
Back in December, Japan launched a satellite intended to test the low frontier: SLATS — Super Low Altitude Satellite. With this satellite, Japan is testing a new, generally unused portion of space … because it’s not so much space as very, very high in the atmosphere. At an altitude of only about 125 miles, there are still enough air molecules around to drag most satellites down to Earth in short order. But SLATS uses a low-thrust ion engine to counteract the drag and maintain it’s extremely low orbit for better than two years.
After some weather-related delays (i.e. it’s extremely cold in Russia in the winter), the Sentinel-3B satellite has been moved to the Plesetsk launch site in Russia. Scheduled for a launch in April, Sentinel-3B will join it’s fellow Copernicus-class satellite … Sentinel-3A.
Together the two satellites provide advanced measurement of environmental factors, including sea ice, temperatures, and atmospheric conditions.
News from the Manufacturers
Orbital has the go ahead to begin construction on LandSat-9.
Landsat 9, a land surface mapping satellite, will collect space-based images and data that serve as valuable resources for researchers in areas that include agriculture, land use mapping, and disaster relief. Orbital ATK is designing and manufacturing the satellite, integrating two government-furnished instruments, and supporting launch, early orbit operations and on-orbit check-out of the observatory.
I promised an impressive 3D Printer, and here it is …
That’s “Stargate,” the massive 3D printer / robotic wonder-thing that Relativity Space intends to use in creating rockets. Their plan includes development of a radically simplified rocket engines that drop the total number of parts in their craft from over 100,000 down to under 1,000.
Relativity is headed up by former employees of SpaceX and Blue Origin and SpaceX. The company has been pretty much under wraps until this week, when they announced a 20-year lease on NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Southern Mississippi. Relativity will use the site for tests of their 3D-printed Aeon 1 engine and their 3D-printed Terran rocket.
The Terran is a relatively small launch vehicle, taking just over a ton to orbit, but Relativity hopes to produce their craft at record low costs. And their ambition doesn’t end there. They’re designing larger crafts and working on plans that would allow siting descendants of Stargate on the Moon or Mars to build rockets on-site.
Now we just wait for a video of Stargate building a rocket.
US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has stated that the next launch of its Electron rocket will be the company’s first fully commercial flight. Two Lemur-2 cubesats for launch customer Spire Global.
Worth noting — Rocket Lab’s Rutherford engine also makes use of 3D-printed components.
Upcoming Launches
Apr 2 — SpaceX CRS 14, Falcon 9
Dragon spacecraft delivering cargo and experiments to the ISS.
Apr 5 — Bangabandhu 1, Falcon 9
First communications satellite specifically for Bangladesh. It will offer Ku-band and C-band services across Bangladesh and its territorial waters of the Bay of Bengal, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia.
Apr 12 — AFSPC 11, Atlas 5
An Air Force launch that includes the EAGLE craft carrying unspecified experiments.
Apr 16 — TESS Mission, Falcon 9 Full Thrust, Launch Complex 39A
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite designed to look for exoplanets that pass in front of 200,000 nearby stars. Delayed from March.
Mar 29 — Iridium Next 41-50, Falcon 9, Space Launch Complex 4E
Commercial communications satellites. Multiple satellite deployment. Delayed from Mar 18.
Apr 28 — Iridium Next 51-55, Falcon 9
See above.
Mar 22 — USIP 2, Terrier-Improved Malemute
Suborbital sounding rocking lofting scientific payload.
Mar 21 — Superbird 8/DSN 1, Ariane 5
Delayed from 2016. Replaces an existing, but aging comms satellite.
Mar 21 — ISS Crew Mission 55, Soyuz MS
Delivering three person crew, Oleg Artemyev (RU, commanding), Drew Feustel (US), and Ricky Arnold US) to International Space Station.
Apr 22 — Blagovest No. 12L, Proton M / Breeze
Russian communications satellite.
Mar 20 — Apstar 6C, Long March 3B
Communications satellite to geosynchronous orbit over Asia-Pacific. Mobile broadband, cellular, and broadcast bands.
Mar 24 — GSLV-F08, GSLV Mk II
A geosynchronous satellite launch on the updated version of India’s purpose-built Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. Communications satellite. Delayed from Mar 15.
Apr ?? — GSLV Mk.2 • Chandrayaan 2
India’s ambitious second lunar mission launches some time in April. This mission includes an orbiter, a lander, and a lunar rover.