NASA successfully tests 3D-printed rocket injector, showcases viability of 3D printing

NASA successfully tests 3D-printed rocket injector, showcases viability of 3D printing

While 3D printing is still very much a niche market and hobby, the industry has slowly been making strides toward printing practical items. NASA recently test-fired 3D printed rocket parts, which not only speaks to the perceived viability of 3D printing, but a way NASA could lower the exorbitant monetary costs of spaceflight.

The practicality of 3D printing is only just now emerging. For the longest time, 3D printing was simply a neat way to make little figurines with a somewhat flimsy structural integrity. You could print a teacup, but once you pour the tea in and it subsequently leaks out onto your pants, you realized that 3D printing was — at the time — more or less a novelty with potential. Only recently have we seen 3D printing reach a level of usefulness, though it was in the form of something controversial – working 3D-printed guns. Now, NASA has 3D-printed rocket parts and successfully test-fired them, proving on the grandest stage — space exploration — that 3D printing is no longer just for teacups with structural flaws.

The rocket part built wasn’t an entire engine, but the rocket engine injector, which is quite literally no small feat considering it is the largest 3D-printed rocket part created to date. A rocket injector isn’t just some piece that is necessary but not the focus of a design (like, for example, a screw), but is the mechanism that mixes and channels engine propellents. The injector survived NASA’s hot-fire test down in Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, and fared better than any 3D-printed injector that came before it by creating 10 times (around 20,000 pounds) more thrust.

Obviously, NASA didn’t use the same PLA plastic that you used to make your 3D-printed chess pieces. Instead, nickel-chromium alloy powder was used, and layers of it were melted together using selective laser melting (SLM). NASA reports that the injector worked “flawlessly,” though does plan to perform more testing on the part to see how it held up, as well as how it compares to injectors that aren’t 3D-printed. One way that this 3D-printed injector compares to a more traditional injector, is that it’s only made from two parts, while previous injectors consisted of around 115 parts.

NASA J2-x rocket part, made with an SLM cusing 3D printer

Not to hog the 3D-printed rocket injector technology and keep the rest of the world in the rocket injector Dark Ages, NASA aims to release the plans for the injector for use by American companies. (Read: What is 3D printing?)

NASA is not only looking into 3D printing as a method to cut costs for obviously expensive technology, but is also looking into the fabrication method in order to solve certain problems encountered in society, such as hunger. 3D printing is still very niche, and the endeavor is still much too expensive for the average consumer considering the items it can produce. However, NASA is but one of many organizations showcasing the viability of the medium as applied to matters more important than cute trinkets.