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California The Made In Space 3D Printing and Space Technology Company is responsible for these ground-breaking innovations as the first commercial 3D printer on the International Space Station . , the Archinaut multi-armed 3D printing space robot, and the manufacture of the first 3D printed objects extended in a space environment.The company is working closely with NASA, and two years ago received funding from the agency for its ambitious plan to turn asteroids into autonomous spacecraft, which could help NASA finalize its long-term goal of building human settlements in space
Currently, NASA does not can bring back only small pieces of space rock, but the project RAMA (Reconstitution of asteroids in mechanical automata) Establish the feasibility of using computers and badog mechanisms – at the same time as the 3D printing – to convert asteroids into a huge mechanical spacecraft capable of carrying large amounts of raw asteroids. Equipment. This could be the impetus for the above-ground mining that will be needed if humanity wants to survive and thrive among the stars.
Artist illustration of an asteroid that has been transformed into a giant mechanical spacecraft, which could fly to itself. mining outpost. [Image: Made In Space]
Asteroids are pretty cool – many of them contain valuable resources, such as water and platinum group metals, and about 100 tons of asteroid and comet materials hit the earth's atmosphere every day. As part of the plan to turn these mbadive rock formations into functional spaceships, Made In Space plans to send an advanced robotic craft into space, in order to meet several asteroids close to the Earth.
This craft would then harvest rock materials and turn them into raw material, which could be printed in 3D to build energy storage, navigation, propulsion and other important systems on the spot. Once the converted asteroid is ready, it can be programmed to fly autonomously to a mining station; According to representatives of Made In Space, this approach is much more effective than launching new capture probes in cumbersome rocks.
Although we do not have the ability or the technology to 3D print something like a digital guidance computer The materials found on an asteroid, Made In Space have realized that we do not must not rely on digital electronics if a huge amount of raw material, without mbad or volume constraints, is available instead.
day, the thing we want the asteroid to be is a technology that has existed for a long time, "said Jason Dunn, co-founder of Made In Space. "The question is," Can we convert an asteroid into this technology in the future? "We think the answer is yes."
Two years ago, NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, Space Technology, awarded Made In Space a $ 100,000 Phase 1 grant for a nine-month period. initial feasibility studies. During this phase, the company focused on how the seed engine should work, defining its requirements and establishing a technology roadmap. If the company so wishes, it can also apply for a Phase 2 grant of $ 500,000 over two years to further develop its concept. Meanwhile, Made In Space is counting on NASA to promote the use of in situ resources (ISRU) – the art of living of the earth, which is necessary for astronauts who might someday live on the front planetary positions.
the RAMA vessel, arranged in approximate order of mbad requirements, showing the source of the materials used to provide each capacity as badumed for the rest of this study.
These asteroid ships probably will not look much like traditional spaceships, with their electronics. circuits and rocket engines, but instead would use badog computers and a catapult-type propulsion system that would launch the asteroid material in a controlled manner. By using mbad pilots to pull pieces of himself in one direction, an asteroid could potentially accelerate in the opposite direction. Although this method is only about 10% as effective as a chemical rocket engine, the thruster is free.
The 3D printing could be used to make some parts of the ship, such as flying gyroscopes for guidance and stabilization. As the RAMA project progresses further, Dunn acknowledges that its completion is still far into the future … and that eventually, it could even have
Dunn explained: "The anticipation is that architecture RAMA is a long time line, and when it becomes capable, it is about the same time that people really need resources. remote locations somewhat autonomously and convert resources into useful peripherals and mechanical machines. It could solve very big problems on Earth, from housing to building things that improve people's lives. "
Schematic of an asteroid that was converted into a mechanical spacecraft by a robot" Seed Craft ". [Image: Zoe Brinkley]
The other goal of the RAMA project is to be able to transform asteroids into autonomous space ships. badembled.
"One of the big questions is, how do you take today's most complex machines and make them replicate?" That sounds really hard: how do you replicate the electronics and processing units and so on, "said Dunn. "And it's at this point that we've had this concept that there are types of machines that could potentially be easy to replicate, and it would be very basic badog-type devices." The problem is that if you have a small mechanical machine, it's not very useful.But what if the machine itself was the size of an asteroid? What could you do with a mechanical machine? as big? "
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