When a company sets out to do something as audacious as revolutionizing space exploration, it’s likely to throw away the book on many traditional processes, starting with design and manufacturing.
Planetary Resource’s stated mission is bold: “To establish a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the solar system within humanity’s economic sphere of influence.”
Planetary Resources is not just at the forefront of space but at the apex of manufacturing itself.
Challenges:
Low-cost robotic space exploration requires significantly optimized complex parts and assemblies to create lighter-weight, more fuel-efficient space travel.
The company’s vehicle for low-cost robotic space exploration is the Arkyd Series of spacecraft that will identify near-Earth asteroids for mining of water and precious metals. The first demonstrator craft, the A3R, was launched and placed successfully into orbit in 2015. The second demonstrator, the A6, is scheduled for a Spring 2016 launch. The two demonstrator spacecraft, about the size of a cereal box, are being used to validate core technologies, including avionics, control systems, software and sensors for detecting and characterizing asteroid resources.
Solutions:
Planetary Resources is using 3D Systems technologies to optimize complex parts and assemblies—resulting in lighter-weight parts, quicker design iterations, and cost savings from consolidating assemblies into one casted part.
“3D printing helps us integrate separate pieces into one organic part,” says Chris Lewicki, Planetary Resources’ president, and CEO. “The goal is to have a spacecraft like your cell phone, with no wasted space.”
A key area of concentration is the fuel tank, which in the past has taken up a large percentage of a spacecraft’s volume and often looks like an appendage tacked onto the outside of the body. In contrast, the Planetary Resources design for the Arkyd 200 and 300 uses patented QuickCast™ casting patterns from 3D Systems to make the propulsion system a structurally integrated framework for the spacecraft itself. Other parts such as the manifold, plenum, and routing geometries are also integrated directly into structural elements that support the spacecraft.
QuickCast, a methodology that modernizes traditional casting techniques dating back thousands of years, is the perfect solution for dealing with design complexity.
“QuickCast affords a capability not possible with traditional manufacturing, and we’re also excited about the promise of direct metal printing,” says Chris Voorhees, chief engineer for Planetary Resources. “With new 3D Systems products like the ProX® DMP 320 system, we can create even more fine detail and precision in our titanium parts, and we look forward to deploying these into space on our upcoming spacecraft.”
Benefits:
Using 3D printed patterns to cast metals gives designers the freedom to attain a higher level of design sophistication, creating organic shapes that remove fasteners, clamps, screws and other auxiliary parts required by traditionally manufactured parts and assemblies.
“Propulsion tanks are normally a large fraction of the volume of a spacecraft,” says Lewicki. “3D printing allows us to explore more efficient, organic designs using materials like titanium for an optimal structure in which to hold propellant. The result is a spacecraft that is at once lighter, cheaper, safer and much easier to reproduce in large numbers.”
“We’re transitioning from subtractive to additive manufacturing. 3D printing has come of age and we believe it represents the future of aerospace manufacturing.”
Planetary Resources uses SLA for QuickCast prototypes and production parts such as the fuel tank, a ProJet 7000 SLA printer for plastic prototypes, and a ProX DMP for direct metal printing.