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Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories
As far as I know, the first use of the phrase "orbital factory" is from Bind Your Sons To Exile, by Jerry Pournelle, published by Odyssey in 1976:
Today, a a laser beam welding collaboration between NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and The Ohio State University in Columbus aims to stimulate in-space manufacturing.
Bill Jack only half listened. They had all been through pressure suit training. A few had been in orbit before. Certainly Bill Jack had; his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex. It had been pleasant work, and Bill had enjoyed his status.
(Laser beam welding in a vacuum chamber during a Boeing 727 parabolic flight)
[From left, Andrew O’Connor, Marshall materials scientist and NASA technical lead for the project; Louise Littles, Marshall materials scientist; and Aaron Brimmer, OSU graduate student. Tasha Dixon/Zero-G]“During the flights we successfully completed 69 out of 70 welds in microgravity and lunar gravity conditions, realizing a fully successful flight campaign,” said Will McAuley, an Ohio State welding engineering student.
Funded in part by Marshall and spanning more than two years, the work involves undergraduate and graduate students and professors from Ohio State, and engineers across several NASA centers. Marshall personnel trained alongside the university team, learning how to operate the flight hardware and sharing valuable lessons from previous parabolic flight experiments. NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, developed a portable vacuum chamber to support testing efforts.
The last time NASA performed welding in space was during the Skylab mission in 1973.
Now that SpaceX has revolutionized flight to orbit, reducing costs to one-tenth of those encountered in earlier eras, orbital manufacturing can really take off; see these earlier stories:
- The Dawn Of Orbiting Manufacturing In 2020?
- First 3D Printer In Space?
- Students! NASA Wants To 3D Print Your Tool Design In Space!
- Jeff Bezos Wants Orbiting Factories (Clarke-style)
- Archinaut Orbiting Robotic Factory
- Made In Space To Manufacture Optical Fiber In Orbit
- Orbital Manufacturer 'Made in Space' Gets $73 Million NASA Contract
- 3D Printed 'Blisk' Manufactured In Orbit
- Space Construction Tools For Large Structures By OAC
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/7/2024)
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