STEPHANE CORVAJA
European Space Agency Vega
Vega small launcher
The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced it is partnering with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) to establish a ‘one-stop shop’ for 3D printing in space.
Through this collaboration MTC, a research organisation based in Coventry, UK, will manage the new ESA Additive Manufacturing Benchmarking Centre (AMBC). ESA has sought to utilise MTC’s expertise and offering of state-of-the-art 3D printing capabilities.
MTC’s managing of the AMBC will provide a simple way for ESA and hi-tech companies to explore the potential of 3D printing and its application on certain projects. Meanwhile, by having access to MTC’s 3D printing offerings, the European Space Agency will be able to produce prototypes and assess their suitability, as per the requirements for specific applications.
“The ESA’s Directorate of Technology Engineering and Quality has called for the creation of a detailed roadmap for the harnessing of 3D printing to the space sector,” said Torben Henriksen, Head of ESA’s Mechanical Department. “We’ve been guided to set up this centre, with customers and industrial partners questioning us about the best way to try out 3D printing for the first time and test out the maturity of the results.”
Not wanting to compete with industry, ESA projects and other interested companies will be able to investigate new engineering methods, before taking a decision on how to proceed. Having identified this requirement, the operation is being outsourced to MTC where ESA feels it will benefit from an expert influence in 3D technology.
“This is a brilliant opportunity to further the technology in one of the most testing and dynamic application areas,” said Dr Dave Brackett, technology manager for additive manufacturing at the MTC. “As the UK National Centre for Additive Manufacturing, we are in a unique position to work with ESA as their Additive Manufacturing Benchmarking Centre and provide the space sector with access to state-of-the-art capability and understanding to support industrial exploitation.”
The first project to make use of the AMBC will be ESA’s Vega small launcher. Vega is designed to cope with a wide range of missions and payload configurations, enabling it to respond to different market opportunities. Unlike most other launchers of Vega’s size, it can place multiple payloads into orbit, and can also handle payloads ranging from a single satellite up to a main satellite which has additional small satellites.
STEPHANE CORVAJA
European Spae Agency Vega
D3s2
“By evolving Vega over time, we aim to hone its competitiveness, increase its flexibility and reduce recurring costs,” said Giorgio Tumino, who is overseeing Vega’s development programme for ESA. “We’re cooperating with AMBC to investigate the use of 3D printing for rocket engine thrust chambers for Vega’s upper stage, potentially allowing for a significant simplification in production and reduced costs. For such high-pressure, high-efficiency liquid rocket thrust chambers, a good surface finish is essential, with the absence of critical defects and the equivalent strength properties of its parent material – produced to a size at the limit of the current capabilities for powder-based additive manufacturing machines, using non-standard alloys.”
AMBC will demonstrate the capability to use 3D printing on copper-based thrust chambers and set the proper process parameters to produce a one-third scale thrust chamber that can be use in firing tests. Assuming all goes to plan, the next step is to go full scale, commencing the formal qualification of the process for flight use.
Boasting an array of materials, machines and post-processing equipment, the AMBC will have the potential to print test hardware using polymers, metal and ceramic 3D printing platforms. Follow-up testing will deliver a fuller understanding to customers of the strengths and weaknesses of their selected 3D printing method. This feedback will cover detailed failure investigations, and provide advice on future improvements. Results of these tests will be published in a newsletter to be distributed across Europe as AMBC attempts to spread its knowhow as widely as possible.
