California-based commercial aerospace companyMoon Express, are on track to send their Electron rocket to the Moon in 2017. The Electron is propelled by 3D printed engines由火箭实验室制造，总部位于洛杉矶。该项目专为Google的现代太空竞赛：Lunar X奖设计。
3D printed engines
九种液体螺旋剂卢瑟福发动机在电子后面。火箭发动机是第一个用于所有核心零件的3D打印，使用煤油和液体氧（LOX）进行燃料。
All of the Rutherford’s primary components; the engine chamber, injector, pumps, and propellant valves, are 3D printed using electron beam melting (EBM).
EBM是瑞典公司Arcam AB（NASDAQ：OMX）的专有技术。截至2016年11月，通用电气公司（NYSE：GE）成为Arcam’s majority shareholder, owning a total of 76.15% of the company. Arcam will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting on February 7, 2017 in Mölndal, Sweden according to news from the company today.
开采月亮
In the Google Lunar X Prize, $20 million will be awarded to the first vehicle to land on the moon, travel across it, and send high quality images back to Earth. Though Moon Express are hoping to win, their goals go far beyond the deadline of December 2017.
Convinced that the Moon will become key to the world’s economy, Moon Express’ overall aims are to mine it for resources, such as the iron rich ‘moon dust’ regolith. Moon Express’ current deadline to bring lunar materials back to Earth is 2020.
Part Time Scientists, a former contender in the Google Lunar X Prize, supports regolith as a material for future constructs on the Moon. PT Scientist Karsten Becker’s research has found microwave sintering might be a way of3D打印Regolith建造世界居住。
Permission to land
Moon Express已获得美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）的许可来推出电子。在《商业空间发射竞争力法》中，该公司还获得了将其从月球中挖掘出来的任何材料的权利。在讨论太空法的会议上，这是有争议的，也是一个热门话题。此类法律的一项重要部分是俄罗斯的施普尼克卫星成为太空中的第一批工艺（1957年），并在尼尔·阿姆斯特朗（Neil Armstrong）和巴兹·奥尔德林（Buzz Aldrin）的月球着陆（1969年）之前创建的《国际外在太空条约》（1969年）。
该条约概述了阻止任何国家声称拥有月球所有权并在其上安装大规模杀伤性武器的法律。它还使探索国家负责造成的损害赔偿和手工艺的行动。
进一步的法律可以和不能做什么月亮and in outer space will be passed once such commercial projects have matured into viable methods for operating in space. For now, private companies in the new Space Race are still too experimental for legislation to restrict and make judgement on their capabilities.
第一届年度3D打印奖的提名现已开放。让我们知道您的提名是谁。
Featured image shows the Moon Express Electron rocket made by Rocket Lab. Photo via: RocketLabUSA on Twitter.
