NASA has looked into 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, to fill its unique requirements for highly customized spacecraft and instrument components. According to the organization, the process offers a compelling alternative to more traditional manufacturing approaches.

"We're not driving the additive manufacturing train, industry is," said Ted Swanson, the assistant chief for technology for the mechanical systems division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Swanson is the center's point-of-contact for additive manufacturing. "But NASA has the ability to get on-board to leverage it for our unique needs."

Led by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, the agency has launched a number of formal programs to prototype new tools for current and future missions using this emerging manufacturing technique. Additive manufacturing involves computer-aided device, or CAD, models and sophisticated printers that literally deposit successive layers of metal, plastic or some other material until they are complete.

Goddard technologists Ted Swanson and Matthew Showalter hold a 3D-printed battery-mounting plate developed specifically for a sounding-rocket mission. The component is the first additive-manufactured device Goddard has flown in space. (Image Credit: NASA)

In addition to the U.S. Air Force, DOE, NIST and NSF, NASA is part of the government team investing in, America Makes, formerly known as the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, a public-private partnership created to transition this exciting technology into mainstream U.S. manufacturing.

America Makes is part of the National Manufacturing Initiative, a forward-leaning effort that recognizes our economy requires an advanced, globally competitive manufacturing sector that invents and makes high-value-added products and leading-edge technologies here in the U.S.

"NASA's work with additive manufacturing should enable us to be smart buyers and help us save time, expense and mass," said LaNetra Tate, the advanced-manufacturing principal investigator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate's Game Changing Development Program. "With additive manufacturing, we have an opportunity to push the envelope on how this technology might be used in zero gravity, how we might ultimately manufacture in space."

As a result of these efforts and others sponsored around the agency, teams of NASA engineers and scientists are investigating how their instruments and missions might benefit from an industry that actually began more than two decades ago, with the introduction of the world's first 3D system.

"This effort really goes beyond one center," said Matt Showalter, who is overseeing Goddard's disparate 3D printing efforts. Showalter believes Goddard technologists and scientists will benefit most from collaborations with others also investigating the technology's benefits. "It's in the national interest to collaborate with other institutions. This is a powerful tool and we need to look at how we can implement it. For us, it's a team effort."

This battery case, created with a material called Polyetherketoneketone, is the first 3D-printed component Goddard has flown. Developed under a university-industry partnership, the part was demonstrated during a sounding-rocket mission testing a thermal-control device developed with R&D funding. (Image Credit: NASA)

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NASA joins 3D manufacturing bandwagon