NASA recently tested its largest 3-D printed rocket engine component to date, marking a milestone in one of the agency's most promising strategies designed to cut space hardware-related costs.
The engine roared to life with help of the printed injector, generating a record 20,000 pounds of thrust.
An injector is responsible for delivering the propellants necessary to power an engine and provide the thrust necessary to launch rockets into space. During the test, liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen passed through the device into a combustion chamber to produce 10 times more thrust than any injector previously fabricated via 3-D printing.
"This successful test of a 3-D printed rocket injector brings NASA significantly closer to proving this innovative technology can be used to reduce the cost of flight hardware," said Chris Singer, the director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
According to NASA, early test results suggest the injector worked exactly as hoped, even in the face of pressures reaching 1,400 pounds per square inch absolute and temperatures as high as 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Computer scans and other inspections are currently underway, however, in order to more closely scrutinize the component.
Developed by Directed Manufacturing Inc., of Austin, Texas, the injector was created using selective laser melting, in which layers of nickel-chromium alloy powder are built up to produce the component with its 28 elements for channeling and mixing propellants.
The design is similar to those used in large engines, such as the RS-25 that will power NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket during deep-space human missions to an asteroid and Mars.
"This entire effort helped us learn what it takes to build larger 3-D parts -- from design, to manufacturing, to testing," said Greg Barnett, the lead engineer for the project. "This technology can be applied to any of SLS's engines, or to rocket components being built by private industry."