With 11 3D printed parts, NASA “Perseverance” successfully landed on Mars

For enthusiasts and manufacturers,3D printingExpand the possibilities of creativity. For professional engineers,3D printingIt is the key to the design of next-generation spacecraft. On February 18, US Eastern Time, the US “Perseverance” rover successfully landed on Mars and will look for signs of life that may have existed on Mars. The landing is to prepare for human exploration of Mars after 2030.And it’s worth noting that 113D printingThe finished metal parts will start a walk on Mars with the Perseverance rover, which will be a3D printingMilestones in history.

3D printingParts, NASA “Perseverance” Mars rover successfully landed on Mars” alt=”With 113D printingParts, NASA “Perseverance” rover successfully landed on Mars” width=”627″ height=”349″ />

©NASA

3D printingAchieve structural integration

Extraordinary perseverance + new manufacturing technology

According to China Daily, “Perseverance” is NASA’s fifth Mars cruiser, and “Perseverance” is the most technologically advanced remote control device launched by NASA to date. After launching on July 30 last year from the Cape Canaveral space station on the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, Perseverance flew 293 million miles (470 million) in more than six months. Kilometers) before reaching Mars. “Perseverance” will stay on Mars for nearly two years, looking for signs of ancient life, and exploring the surface of Mars.

The US$2.7 billion (approximately RMB 17.5 billion) rover was built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and has a body length of 10 feet (about 3 meters) and a width of 9 feet. It is 7 feet tall and weighs 2,260 pounds (approximately 1,025 kilograms), which is about 278 pounds heavier than its predecessor, the Curiosity rover.

According to the in-depth understanding of 3D Science Valley, in 113D printingAmong the parts, 5 are in the PIXL instrument of NASA’s Perseverance rover. The lunchbox-sized device is the abbreviation of X-ray Petrochemical Planetary Instrument. It will analyze the rock surface by emitting X-ray beams to help the rover look for signs of fossil microbial life.

The casing of PIXL is one of the instruments on the NASA Perseverance Rover probe, including several3D printingMade of titanium alloy parts. The frame shows the first half of the two-piece housing part. Source: JPL

NASA’s JPL team (JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Southern California and managed by NASA) designed the two-piece titanium shell of the Perseverance rover PIXL, a mounting frame and two support rods, the support The rod fixes the shell to the end of the arm, making it hollow and very thin.According to 3D Science Valley, these parts are provided by Carpenter Additive Manufacturing3D printingSupport, its quality is three to four times lighter than that of conventional production,3D printingTechnology enables NASA to achieve low quality that cannot be achieved with traditional manufacturing.

The other six of the Perseverance rover3D printingThe components are in an instrument called “Mars Oxygen Field Resource Utilization Experiment” or MOXIE. The device will test technologies that may produce industrial quantities of oxygen to produce rocket propellant on Mars in the future, thereby helping astronauts return to Earth.

This X-ray image shows the MOXIE instrument of the Perpetual Rover3D printingInside the heat exchanger, this type of X-ray image can be used to check for defects in parts. Source: JPL

To produce oxygen, MOXIE heats Martian air to close to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius).According to 3D Science Valley, there are six3D printingHeat exchanger-palm-shaped nickel alloy plate, which can protect the key parts of the instrument from high temperature.Through the traditional manufacturing process, the two parts of the machined heat exchanger need to be welded together, but through3D printingThe need for welding can be avoided, and the heat exchanger can be manufactured as a structurally integrated part.

The alloy used in the heat exchanger is a nickel-based alloy. Such parts are called super alloys because they can maintain their strength even at very high temperatures. Super alloys are usually found in jet engines or power-generating turbines. Even at high temperatures, they can indeed resist corrosion very well.

but3D printingIt also needs to be combined with other processes. According to the understanding of 3D Science Valley, in order to avoid3D printingPorosity or cracks that weaken the strength of the material are generated in the process.exist3D printingAfter completion, the parts need to be processed in a hot isostatic pressing equipment, heating the parts to above 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), and applying strong pressure evenly around the parts. Finally, engineers need to perform extensive mechanical tests to check the microstructure of the heat exchangers and ensure that they are suitable for space flight.

According to China Daily, “Perseverance” can travel an average of 650 feet per Martian day and contains 7 scientific equipment, a robotic arm that can reach 7 feet in length, and a rock drill. This nuclear-powered rover uses a plutonium generator provided by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The scientific research equipment on the rover includes a high-definition video that can capture the surface and atmospheric features of Mars, a panoramic full-color three-dimensional image and a zoom lens camera that magnifies distant objects, and a set of sensors that can observe the weather and monitor the dust on the surface of Mars. A system that can use carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere to produce oxygen, an X-ray camera system that can determine the chemical composition of rocks and analyze subtle features, a ground-penetrating radar system that analyzes the geological features under the surface of Mars, and a group of searching for organic matter and minerals. Cameras, spectrometers and lasers that take photos of rock particles and surface textures at close range, and a camera that recognizes the chemical composition of rock and soil, including atomic and molecular components.

According to China Daily, in addition to NASA, the UAE and China also carried out space missions last year. The Rosalyn Franklin rover of the European Space Agency will land on Mars in 2023. This rover will be equipped with a drilling machine that can drill several meters underground, where biological molecules far away from the harsh environment of the surface may live.

3D printingHelp NASA take off at a high point

From3D printingRocket to3D printingRover, NASA is moving3D printingApplication to the aerospace field is in the stage of accelerating acceleration.According to the market observation of 3D Science Valley, the core key technologies developed by NASA in the aerospace field include: Copper alloy GRCop-84 powder bed-based selective laser melting (L-PBF) metal3D printingTechnology, process development of bimetallic chamber, through DED directional energy deposition additive manufacturing technology to manufacture rocket thrust chamber nozzles with cooling channels, new additive manufacturing materials for rocket thrust chamber injectors and other components , Namely NASA HR-1.

In terms of thrust chamber additive manufacturing, according to the understanding of 3D Science Valley, NASA has completed the bimetal development on the thrust chamber of 2K-lbf thrust, and is actively applying it to the manufacturing of 7K-lbf and 40K-lbf thrust chambers. . Significant progress is being made, and more test plans and supporting hardware development are planned in 2020 and 2021. The simulation model that NASA has developed can suggest manufacturing strategies to control the deformation during the manufacturing process.

(Editor in charge: admin)