MOUNTAIN VIEW (KPIX 5) — A Silicon Valley 3D printing company has been awarded a contract with NASA to launch a project creating a satellite that will manufacture and assemble itself in orbit.
A top NASA administrator visited Mountain View’s Ames Research Center Monday and toured state-of-the-art facilities of Made In Space. NASA awarded Made in Space a $73 million contract to launch Archinaut by 2022, an “autonomous robotic manufacturing and assembly platform.”
Jim Bridenstine, the space agency‘s top official, called Ames a “jewel” and praised the work of Made In Space as “impressive.” The manufacturing company 3D prints structures, parts, tools and more while in orbit.
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Caltech have developed new soft robotic systems that are inspired by origami. These new systems are able to move and change shape in response to external stimuli. The new developments bring us closer to having fully untethered soft robots. The soft robots that we possess today use external power and control. Because of this, they have to be tethered to off-board systems with hard components.
The research was published in Science Robotics. Jennifer A. Lewis, a Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at SEAS and co-lead author of the study, spoke about the new developments.
“The ability to integrate active materials within 3D-printed objects enables the design and fabrication of entirely new classes of soft robotic matter,” she said.
A South African professor, Mashudu Tshifularo, and his team at the University of Pretoria pioneered the world’s first middle ear transplant using 3D-printed bones. Here is how he carried out the successful surgery.
That vast majority of quadcopter drones produce thrust in a very straightforward way: the propellers push air downwards at a high speed which creates lift. But that doesn’t mean other means of propulsion can’t be used. YouTuber Tom Stanton often experiments with unconventional drones and methods of propulsion, and in his newest video he has made a drone fly using the Coandă effect.
The Coandă effect, named after Romanian inventor Henri Coandă, describes the propensity for fluids — including air — to cling to convex surfaces as they move across them. That’s because a low pressure zone is created around the curved surface, and the atmospheric pressure of the surrounding air pushes the moving air along. This effect can be used to redirect the flow of air, which is how Stanton wanted to provide thrust for a drone. Instead of having propellers that push directly down on the air, he used an impeller to push air outwards horizontally. The impellers are mounted on top of domes, and the Coandă effect pulls the air downwards to provide thrust.
For his first test, Stanton 3D-printed both the impellers and Coandă effect domes. Those were then mounted on a fairly standard drone frame, complete with a conventional flight controller to adjust the motor speed and keep the drone stable. Unfortunately, that design didn’t perform well and was barely able to take off, unable to even get past the ground effect. He then modified the design to use traditional propellers on top of the domes. That setup performed much better, but Stanton is quick to note that it’s still far less efficient than just omitting the domes altogether — even after accounting for their additional weight.
Nearly one year ago to the day, we first revealed Curtiss Motorcycle’s upcoming Zeus V8 electric motorcycle. And now we’re learning that the innovative electric motorcycle has already begun production, thanks to a recently announced partnership.
3D printer manufacturer Electronic Alchemy has developed a system capable of additive manufacturing fully functional electronics. Named eForge, NASA intends to use the system during planetary space missions to 3D print chemical sensors on demand. Following the launch of eForge, the company is also now designing a device to recycle 3D printed electronics, further reducing NASA’s need for resupply missions.
A Luxembourg company is working to develop 3D printers which will create human skin on board a spaceship while out in space.
Space company, Blue Horizon, based in Betzdorf, is working with German company OHB SE – of which it is subsidiary –and the Technical University of Dresden to develop the printers.
We’re only a handful of months away from the year 2020, and with the way parts look and tech acts, it finally feels like we’re entering the future. It’s a future crafted by sophisticated 3D printers and machining centers, using materials provided by global-reaching supply chains and connected to an exponential rate of new superpowered gadgets. Nowadays, there’s really no reason to think any manufacturing feat is impossible. If something doesn’t exist, it’s just that we haven’t figured it out yet.
And this futuristic techtopia brimming with potential wouldn’t be possible if not for engineers—those dedicated, uber-creative folks plotting such a course, continuously improving the world around through the super power of… math.
Mathematics has been the indispensable fuel to make the impossible possible since at least the ancient Egyptians more than four thousand years ago. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the world’s oldest monument to its power. Amazingly, its geometrical elegance was calculated on papyrus scrolls, most of which have turned to dust long ago. Yet the universal language of math still speaks through its dimensions. And it will continue to do so for time immemorial.
