Abstract
Mankind is setting to colonize space, for which the manufacturing of habitats, tools, spare parts and other infrastructure is required. Commercial manufacturing processes are already well engineered under standard conditions on Earth, which means under Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. Based on the literature review, additive manufacturing under lunar and other space gravitational conditions have only been researched to a very limited extent. Especially, additive manufacturing offers many advantages, as it can produce complex structures while saving resources. The materials used do not have to be taken along on the mission, they can even be mined and processed on-site. The Einstein-Elevator offers a unique test environment for experiments under different gravitational conditions. Laser experiments on selectively melting regolith simulant are successfully conducted under lunar gravity and microgravity. The created samples are characterized in terms of their geometry, mass and porosity. These experiments are the first additive manufacturing tests under lunar gravity worldwide.
Highlights
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are well known under Earth’s gravity and atmosphere
The melted regolith samples are generated under microgravity ( g ≈ 10−6 g) – this represents the conditions in orbit or outer space – lunar gravity (0.16 g) and the conditions on Earth (1 g)
The EinsteinElevator offers the novel ability to carry out experiments under adjustable gravitational conditions ( - 5 g) as well as the necessary infrastructure and accesibility to adjust these conditions at a low cost
Summary
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are well known under Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. This paper compares the state of the art of additive manufacturing processes in different environments and presents the feasibility of experiments in the Einstein-Elevator, a generation drop tower of the Leibniz University Hannover. After successfully laser melting regolith simulant under vacuum and Earth’s gravity, system tests are continued in lunar and microgravity conditions in the Einstein-Elevator. This unique drop tower concept enables substantial progress in research worldwide for future space missions and other fundamental problems. The melted regolith samples are generated under microgravity ( g ≈ 10−6 g) – this represents the conditions in orbit or outer space – lunar gravity (0.16 g) and the conditions on Earth (1 g).
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