HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – A giant robot at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is helping the agency build the largest lightweight composite parts ever produced for space vehicles.
The robot’s work at the Alabama facility may prove pivotal in NASA’s new Space Launch System, designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built, capable to taking man to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. Using lightweight materials like composites would allow the SLS to carry more payload – crew, equipment, science instruments – on missions.
The Huntsville facility says NASA is conducting composites manufacturing technology development and demonstration projects to determine whether the lightweight materials can be part of the SLS and other exploration spacecraft, such as landers and rovers.
“These new robotic fiber placement tools are game changers because they can drastically reduce the cost and improve the quality of large space structures,” said John Vickers, the manager for NASA’s National Center for Advanced Manufacturing.
SPOOLS OF FIBER TAPE
The large structures built by the robot will be tested in Marshall structural test stands where spaceflight conditions can be simulated.
“The robot will build structures larger than 8 meters, or 26 feet, in diameter, some of the largest composite structures ever constructed for space vehicles,” said Justin Jackson, the Marshall materials engineer who installed and checked out the robot and who helped build and test one of the largest composite rocket fuel tanks ever made.
The NASA Marshall robot stands on a track and works like this: Its head contains 16 spools of composite fiber tape that it releases in precise patterns to make both small and large objects. As the fibers are released they are heated so that they adhere to various surfaces. The head, which is mounted at the end of a 21-foot articulated arm, can be changed out for different projects.
“Composite manufacturing has advanced tremendously in the last few years, and NASA is using this industrial automated fiber placement tool in new ways to advance space exploration,” Jackson added. “Marshall’s investment in this robot will help mature composites manufacturing technology that may lead to more affordable space vehicles.”
Get additional information on the robot and Marshall’s development of composites for spacecraft.
