SEDS UC San Diego on the brink of making history with partially 3D printed satellite

Bright futures peer over dark side of the moon.

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Just a flight readiness review away from seeing their 3D printing-influenced miniature satellite, known as a CubeSat, being launched into space as part of a NASA mission next year, Faris Hamdi and Diana Alsindy of SEDS UC San Diego conclude 20 minutes of excitable storytelling to reflect on their journey.

SEDS UCSD, or Students for the Exploration and Development of Space UC San Diego, is ‘America’s Finest City’s’ division of what is a national organisation. CubeQuest is the NASA competition that will see three CubeSats launched with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, atop of the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on its maiden flight next year. Faris and Diana are SEDS UCSD’s program manager and propulsions lead. Triteia is the satellite at the centre of the story. And Callan is the 3D printed hydrogen peroxide thruster that separates Triteia from the rest.

'Everything starts with an idea'

It all started with an idea in a library room full of determined, innovative, intuitive freshman students. And it would mean everything to the 25-strong team at SEDS UCSD to see Triteia launched into orbit in November 2018. It’d be the first student-built satellite to orbit the moon. It’d be the first powered by a 3D printed engine too.

Having come through three ground tests, where the design of Triteia and its components were under the microscope to varying degrees, there’s just one round, and four more competitors, in SEDS UCSD’s way. The fourth ground test will review whether Triteia will be able to function to NASA’s high standards in low-orbit conditions. It’s what the undergraduates have worked towards for two years. Yet, Faris and Diana are grounded enough to see that, whatever happens, their achievements to date are worth recognising.

“This project started off in the library study room about two years ago, I was a freshman at SEDS UC San Diego,” Faris told TCT. “It’s amazing how far we’ve gotten from sitting in a library with an idea, just asking basic questions, ‘how can you get to the moon?’ And going from that to a CubeSat that is competing for a spot on the SLS rocket is tremendous.”

Diana adds: “Whether we launch the CubeSat or not, which is definitely our goal and mission, these people that are barely 21-years-old, they know how a spacecraft works, they know how to come up with an idea, put it to use, design it, integrate it, test it. They’re going to go into the industry and they know acronyms, all these processes, they know how to design a spacecraft and how to troubleshoot problems in engineering.

“This was also one of our biggest goals – that we provide all these resources and all of this knowledge in order to apply it in the real world. We’re going to graduate, I’m going to graduate in three months and I’m not going to be here for the very final step and many others will not be here as well, but they’re going to carry all of this knowledge that they have learnt [into their working lives].”

Third time for everything

What may be a first for low-orbit satellites, is certainly not for NASA or the SEDS UCSD team. SEDS UCSD has 3D printed engines in two previous projects, both rockets, respectively named Vulcan-1 and Tri-D. With Vulcan-1 and Tri-D’s launches both successful, SEDS UCSD was confident a 3D printed engine could be implemented in Triteia seamlessly. As is well known, 3D printing allows innovators to save on costs and time, but SEDS UCSD’s propulsions system is also seeing enhancements to its performance. This heightened performance will help Triteia to contribute to a mission that aims to break new ground, and capture images of the moon explorers may never have seen before. 

“We have a 1lb, 90% hydrogen peroxide thruster that is 3D printed out of Inconel 718 and this engine will be used to basically slow down the CubeSat when it’s reaching lunar orbit,” explains Diana.

Faris elaborates: “We’re using a hydrogen peroxide thruster to get into lunar orbit around the moon and in about six days. Once we get to the moon we will be scanning the surface of the moon, taking images of it, and trying to compare to some of the data that already exists.”

With Triteia’s exemplary communication and power systems, both built in-house, the data will be easily transferred back to the mission control room. Thanks to SEDS UCSD’s constructive talents, Triteia stands a good chance in the upcoming ground test later this spring. But it had to come through three rounds of design tests too. So, how did the team design Triteia?

“On the software side, we use SolidWorks and we use Ansys for optimisation for fluid flow,” Faris said. “Then we transfer some of the design changes back to SolidWorks and from there, we send the SolidWorks file to our manufacturer.”

The alluded to manufacturer is Metal Technologies Corp, based on the West Coast of the United States, and according to Faris, the sole reason SEDS UCSD can 3D print components for these projects. Metal Technologies, upon receiving the SolidWorks file, assess the design’s additive manufacturability. After sending it back to San Diego for final alterations, the part will be returned to Metal Technologies and then printed.

This set-up has allowed iterations to the fundamental part of Triteia, its thruster, to be made incisively. It allowed more time for the team to improve other areas of the Triteia, lifting the satellite to a higher status, putting themselves in a much stronger position for the CubeQuest competition.  

“When you want to do some design changes for the engine, instead of machining the whole thing again we can just 3D print one specific part, one specific aspect of the engine,” Diana surmises. “That saves a lot time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort from the team and our manufacturer.”

An Indiegogo campaign is up and running to help the team purchase the required additional flight components to integrate into Triteia, ensuring their CubeSat has the best possible chance of being on the Nasa launch next November. SEDS, as a whole organisation, strives to make big impacts with small technologies. Its San Diego division is in position to do just that with its 3D printing-powered CubeSat.

Faris and Diana discussed walking longer paths, regarding the accessibility of space as much as their own careers in the industry. Triteia is a project that aims to leverage 3D technology to launch a student-built satellite to explore the surface of the moon, and transfer information back to NASA's mission control room. Though their chances look good, it’s certainly no foregone conclusion that they’ll succeed. The one thing that is certain is the bright future of these undergraduate students in the field of space exploration.

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