HOUSTON (NASA PR) — The 2022 edition of the International Space Station Benefits for Humanity publication is now available. This updated edition is packed with numerous benefits of the microgravity laboratory highlighting groundbreaking discoveries helping society, technologies tested for future space exploration, new scientific breakthroughs, and contributions to the growing low-Earth orbit (LEO) economy.

Over more than two decades, the International Space Station has evolved into an advanced microgravity laboratory for human space operations and science. The space station offers researchers worldwide the opportunity to utilize the unique environmental conditions of LEO, supporting hundreds of experiments across every major scientific field at any given time. With over 20 years of research and 3,300 experiments hosted aboard the station, now more than ever discoveries and developments are taking shape. The station’s ability to foster research has aided in the growing commercial space economy allowing new players to enter the space marketplace and launching flourishing businesses back on Earth.

“This edition focuses on new areas of scientific study that are resulting from the last two decades of ISS research, future technologies for the exploration of the Moon and Mars, lifesaving discoveries, and the companies and economic benefits enabled by this research.” said Dr. Kirt Costello, chief scientist for the space station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Ursa Major’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab in Youngstown, Ohio Cuts Time to Produce Rocket Engine Components from 6 Months to 1 Month

DENVER (Ursa Major PR) — Ursa Major, America’s only privately funded company that focuses solely on rocket propulsion, delivered its first copper-based 3D-printed rocket engine combustion chambers out of its additive manufacturing (3D-printing) lab in Youngstown, Ohio, compressing the production and delivery cycle to one month, compared to a minimum of six months using traditional manufacturing processes. These advanced copper alloy-based engine components will be tested for space launch and hypersonic applications.

CLEVELAND (NASA PR) — NASA innovators recently developed a new metal alloy using a 3D printing process that dramatically improves the strength and durability of the components and parts used in aviation and space exploration, resulting in better and longer-lasting performance.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (Continuous Composites PR) — Continuous Composites, a pioneer of advanced® composite 3D printing technology, has been chosen by NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program to additively manufacture low Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) open isogrid composite structures for space applications, using its patented Continuous Fiber 3D Printing technology, CF3D®.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The question of how to strengthen the U.S. space industry’s weakened supply chain, which has been battered over the past two years by the global COVID-19 pandemic, was the subject of a panel discussion at the Space Tech Expo last week. The answers boiled down to the Pentagon adopting an agile approach to developing and acquiring technology, and reversing a decades-old trend by industry of outsourcing manufacturing abroad.

New photosensitive resin harnesses solar radiation for low-power 3D printing in vacuum

TOKYO, May 17, 2022 – Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today that the company has developed an on-orbit additive-manufacturing technology that uses photosensitive resin and solar ultraviolet light for the 3D printing of satellite antennas in the vacuum of outer space. The novel technology makes use of a newly developed liquid resin that was custom formulated for stability in vacuum. The resin enables structures to be fabricated in space using a low-power process that utilizes the sun’s ultraviolet rays for photopolymerization.

The technology specifically addresses the challenge of equipping small, inexpensive spacecraft buses with large structures, such as high-gain antenna reflectors, and enables on-orbit fabrication of structures that greatly exceed the dimensions of launch vehicle fairings. Resin-based on-orbit manufacturing is expected to enable spacecraft structures to be made thinner and lighter than conventional designs, which must survive the stresses of launch and orbital insertion, thereby reducing both total satellite weight and launch costs.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

NASA has selected three companies to continue development of technologies that will allow Artemis astronauts to extract oxygen from and 3D print parts using lunar regolith under the space agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

The Phase II awards to Blueshift, L’Garde and Air Squared are worth up to $750,000 apiece over 24 months. Each company previously received Phase I awards to begin developing the technologies.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., March 22, 2022 (X-Bow Launch Systems PR) — X-Bow Launch Systems Inc. (X-Bow), a revolutionary American space technology company focused on 3D printed energetics, announced today that it has exited stealth mode. X-Bow (pronounced “cross-bow”) brings to market its solid fuel rocket motors, along with a suite of small launch vehicles for both orbital and suborbital launch services. Customers already include the U.S. Air Force Research Labs and AFWERX, Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs, as well as the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Since its founding in 2016, X-Bow has focused on the design and development of 3D printed solid rocket motors that are more efficient and considerably more cost effective than traditional motors. X-Bow’s new class of highly flexible, reliable and ultra-responsive solid rocket motors introduces new products to a market that has not seen significant technological change for decades. 

ESCH-SUR-ALZETTE, Luxembourg (ESRIC PR) — Following the first call for applications, the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) has selected the five start-ups to participate in the “Start-up Support Programme” (SSP) and begin their pre-incubation in April 2022.

Based in Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg, ESRIC is Europe’s leading research and innovation centre in the field of space resources. Launched in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), and Technoport (Luxembourg’s main technology incubator), ESRIC’s Start-up Support Programme (SSP) aims to support early-stage start-ups in the space resources sector, to develop their business models, attract their first customers and secure their first investments. Targeting terrestrial and/or space applications, the Start-up Support Programme is managed jointly with ESA.

PARIS (ESA PR) — A standard 3D printer cannot produce anything bigger than the size limits of the printer itself. But this new IMPERIAL 3D printer, designed for use in space by a Europe-wide industrial consortium, can print high performance polymer parts of unlimited size along one dimension. What is also known as ‘Additive manufacturing’ is an essential enabling technology for deep space crewed missions. Built to operate in weightlessness – […]