Monthly Archives: November 2014

Space Station 3D Printer Readied For Test Prints | Video
The Made In Space printer was launched aboard the SpaceX CRS-4 mission in Sep. 2014. On Nov. 17th, 2014, the printer was installed into the microgravity science laboratory #39;s glove box. Its...

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Space Station 3D Printer Readied For Test Prints | Video - Video

The International Space Station has received its 3D printer, installed in its Microgravity Science Glovebox to move towards self sufficiency.

Commander Barry Wilmore installing the 3D printer. NASA TV

Astronauts aboard the ISS will soon be experimenting with additive manufacturing in microgravity, with the installation of the very first 3D printer in space.

Commander Barry Wilmore unpacked and installed the printer, built by Made in Space and about the size of a small microwave oven, in the Microgravity Science Glovebox on board the space station's Destiny module, over the course of Monday, November 17.

This is the next step towards self-sufficiency for the ISS: a 3D printer capable of operating in microgravity would be able to help the astronauts manufacture their own components and tools, right there on the station.

The 3D printer installed in the MSG isn't quite that printer yet -- the astronauts will be using it to test how well 3D printing works in microgravity, and whether the objects printed will be as accurate as those printed on Earth. The printer will use a relatively low-temperature plastic feedstock, while the MSG will keep the astronauts safe from any potential malfunctions.

The first phase of printing will include a series of engineering test coupons. These will be sent back to Earth to be compared with control samples made by the same printer while it was at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, before being sent up to the ISS.

"This is a very exciting day for me and the rest of the team. We had to conquer many technical challenges to get the 3D printer to this stage," said Made in Space lead engineer Mike Snyder. "This experiment has been an advantageous first stepping stone to the future ability to manufacture a large portion of materials and equipment in space that has been traditionally launched from Earth surface, which will completely change our methods of exploration."

Commander Wilmore also performed the first critical system checks on the printer to make sure that it is operating as it should. Hardware and software are both in full operating condition.

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The ISS gets its Zero-G 3D printer

Russia will deploy its own orbital space station in 2017, using parts of modules originally destined for the International Space Station (ISS), according to Kommersant, a Russian daily newspaper.

The latest development follows an announcement by the countrys deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin earlier this year that Russia would not use the ISS after 2020, Sputnik reported, citing the Kommersant report, which cited a source close to the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, which is administrated by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

The new station will be located in a geometrically favorable location with the possibility of an extended field of view of the Earth's surface, the source told Kommersant. As much as 90 percent of Russia's territory and the Arctic offshore area will be visible from the new space station, while the ISS field of view covers not more than 5 percent of the region.

According to the Kommersant report, one of the principal tasks of the space station will be to test spacecraft bound for the moon. The spacecraft would be first delivered to the space station, before an attempt to reach the moon.

The newspaper said that the project's costs are as yet uncertain, but added, citing sources, that modules and devices developed for the Russian segment of the ISS would initially be used for the project, helping Moscow avoid additional costs.

In May, Rogozin announced that Russia would deny use of the ISS' Russian segment to the U.S. after 2020, and ban the use of Russian-made rocket engines for launching U.S. military satellites, in an apparent response to American sanctions imposed on Russia over the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian segment can exist independently from the American one. The U.S. one cannot, Rogozin said at the time. After 2020, we would like to divert these funds [used for ISS] to more promising space projects.

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Russia To Deploy Its Own Space Station In 2017: Report

ISS-RapidScat data on a North Atlantic extratropical cyclone, as seen by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System used by weather forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Ocean Prediction Center. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/NOAA

Barely two months after being launched to the International Space Station (ISS), NASAs first science payload aimed at conducting Earth science from the stations exterior has started its ocean wind monitoring operations two months ahead of schedule.

Data from the ISS Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat payload is now available to the worlds weather and marine forecasting agencies following the successful completion of check out and calibration activities by the mission team.

Indeed it was already producing high quality, usable data following its power-on and activation at the station in late September and has monitored recent tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans prior to the end of the current hurricane season.

RapidScat is designed to monitor ocean winds for climate research, weather predictions and hurricane monitoring for a minimum mission duration of two years.

RapidScat is a short mission by NASA standards, said RapidScat Project Scientist Ernesto Rodriguez of JPL.

Its data will be ready to help support U.S. weather forecasting needs during the tail end of the 2014 hurricane season. The dissemination of these data to the international operational weather and marine forecasting communities ensures that RapidScats benefits will be felt throughout the world.

ISS-RapidScat instrument, shown in this artists rendering, was launched to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX CRS-4 mission on Sept. 21, 2014 and attached at ESAs Columbus module. It will measure ocean surface wind speed and direction and help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johnson Space Center.

The 1280 pound (580kilogram) experimental instrument was developed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its a cost-effective replacement to NASAs former QuikScat satellite.

The $26 million remote sensing instrument uses radar pulses reflected from the oceans surface at different angles to calculate the speed and direction of winds over the ocean for the improvement of weather and marine forecasting and hurricane monitoring.

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NASAs RapidScat Ocean Wind Watcher Starts Earth Science Operations at Space Station

ESA is set to send a 3D printer up to the International Space Station (ISS) for a preliminary round of orbital testing in the first half of next year. The Portable On-Board Printer (POP3D), was designed and manufactured in Italy and will be one of the focuses of ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti's Futura mission. The results of the study will be instrumental in informing us on the potential uses of 3D printing in microgravity.

The printer has been purpose-built to suit the limitations of life aboard the ISS. It requires only a small amount of power and very little room, with the little cube measuring only 25 cm sq (9.5 sq in). Furthermore, whilst POP3D utilizes a heat-based process to print components and tools, its use does not effect the station's fragile environment, using only safe, biodegradable plastics in the printing process.

Whilst the ISS has an abundance of spares for basically every tool and component imaginable, having a 3D printer aboard the station to replace damaged apparatus is an obvious benefit of the device. The loss of a vital piece of equipment could greatly impair the progress of research taking place on the ISS, and this in turn represents a significant financial loss to the space agencies that administer the station, with US$3-4 billion spent yearly by NASA alone.

To this end, agencies such as the ESA are embracing the potential benefits of 3D printing across a variety of areas. NASA and partner Aerojet Rocketdyne are in the process of heat testing 3D-printed rocket parts, with initial results proving that 3D-printed copper parts can withstand the punishing temperatures and pressures experienced by a launch vehicles combustion engines during lift-off.

A 3D-printed deployment mechanism for satellite-based solar panels (Photo: ESAA. Le Floc'h)

"The successful hot fire test of subscale engine components provides confidence in the additive manufacturing process and paves the way for full scale development," states NASA lead engineer Tyler Hickman. 3D-printed engine elements such as these could significantly lower the expense and lead times of launch vehicle fabrication.

"It is very promising for reducing costs particularly for complex structures and reducing lead time significantly," says Steffen Beyer, Head of Materials and Process Technology at Airbus Defence and Space. "In the case of a complex injector of a rocket engine, we are able to take the total number of parts needed down from around 250 down to one or two; that represents a revolution in design and manufacturing."

This is only one example of the potential uses of 3D printing in the space exploration sphere, with further concepts ranging from reducing satellite weight to 3D-printing a moonbase that would afford its occupants protection from the hazardous conditions prevailing outside Earth's protective atmosphere.

It is estimated that the POP3D printer will be able to print a plastic component in about half an hour. Once the experiment has run its course, the objects printed aboard the ISS will be returned to Earth for detailed analysis and compared with objects printed using identical processes here on Earth. This will allow scientists to determine what effects, if any, microgravity has on the 3D printing process.

Source: ESA

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POP3D to be Europe's first 3D printer in space

NASA Television will provide extensive coverage of the Sunday, Nov. 23, launch from Kazakhstan of three crew members of Expedition 42/43, as they begin their planned six-hour journey to the International Space Station. NASA TV coverage will start at 3 p.m. EST and will include video of the pre-launch activities leading up to spacecraft boarding.

Terry Virts of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:01 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 (3:01 a.m. Monday, Nov. 24 in Baikonur).

The trio will ride to orbit in a Soyuz spacecraft, which will rendezvous with the space station and dock after four orbits of Earth. Docking to the Russian segment's Rassvet module will take place at 9:53 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 9:15 p.m.

Around 11:30 p.m., hatches between the Soyuz and the station will be opened. Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, as well as Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Roscosmos, will greet Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti. Hatch opening coverage begins on NASA TV at 11 p.m.

Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti will remain aboard the station until mid-May 2015. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova, who have been aboard since Sept. 25, will return to Earth in early March, leaving Virts in command of Expedition 43.

For the full schedule of prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, visit:

NASA TV Live

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NASA Television Coverage Set for Next International Space Station Crew Launch

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station crew of Barry Wilmore of the US Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of Russia blasts off from the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodromeShamil Zhumatov/Reuters

Russia is said to be planning to set up its own orbital space station in 2017 which would allow Moscow to have an edge over the International Space Station (ISS).

Moscow earlier announced that it would not be using the ISS after 2020.

The Russian daily Kommersant quoted a space engineering source as saying: "The new station will be located geometrically more advantageous, allowing an extended field of view of the earth's surface. As much as 90 percent of Russia's territory and the Arctic offshore are will be visible from the station."

The source added that only 5% of the region is presently visible from the ISS.

As part of the mission, a manned spacecraft would be dispatched to the lunar infrastructure which would first reach the station and eventually the moon.

"In fact, we are talking about the creation of a bridgehead first vehicles will be delivered to the station, and then to the moon," said the source.

The initial deployment for the new space station would involve the modules and devices stationed by the Russian side in the ISS as Moscow withdraws its resources.

The cost of the mission has not been estimated as yet, but Russian officials have hinted at an early exit from the ISS.

Amidst the West-Russia political tensions, Russia had announced in May 2014 that it would not allow the US to use the Russian segment of the ISS after 2020 and placed a ban on Russia-made rocket engines for American military satellites.

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Russia to Set up Own Orbital Space Station to Gain Edge Over ISS