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Investigating the additive manufacture of extra-terrestrial materials

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conference contribution
posted on 2016-10-12, 10:51 authored by Athanasios Goulas, Daniel EngstromDaniel Engstrom, Ross J. Friel, Russell A. Harris
The Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing process category, consists of a group of key enabling technologies allowing the fabrication of both intrinsic and complex structures for a series of applications, including aerospace and astronautics. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the potential application of in-space additive manufacturing/3D printing, for onsite fabrication of structures and parts, using the available extra-terrestrial natural resources as feedstock. This study was carried out by using simulants of terrestrial origin, mimicking the properties of those respective materials found extra-terram (in space). An investigation was conducted through material characterisation, processing and by powder bed fusion, and resultant examination by analytical techniques. The successful realisation of this manufacturing approach in an extra-terrestrial environment could enable a sustainable presence in space by providing the ability to build assets and tools needed for long duration/distance missions in deep space. Introduction

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Published in

2016 Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium Proceedings (SFF Symp 2016)

Citation

GOULAS, A. ... et al., 2016. Investigating the additive manufacture of extra-terrestrial materials. IN: Proceedings of the 2016 Annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium - An Additive Manufacturing Conference, Austin, Texas, USA, August 8-10, 2016.

Publisher

Laboratory for Freeform Fabrication and University of Texas at Austin

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2016-08-22

Publication date

2016

Notes

This is a conference paper. The proceedings archive is at: http://sffsymposium.engr.utexas.edu/archive

Language

  • en

Location

Austin, TX

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