研究人员在爱荷华州立大学have successfully tested a novel approach to 3D printing electronics in zero-gravity conditions.
该团队的技术代替重力，有效地利用电力将导电油墨打印到逐层的玻璃基础上，从而可以创建复杂的电路。与之合作NASA，工程师的目的是将过程发展为一种在太空中生产传感器的方法，从而减少了宇航员对携带备件的依赖，并使长途太空飞行更加可行。
研究团队的首席调查员Hantang Qin解释说：“对于未来的NASA任务，太空探索任务，他们不仅希望将人们送回那里，而且还希望长期寄回设施。”“这就是我们要做的。我们正在制造打印机，因此打印机可以长期留在国际空间站（ISS）或火星上。”
Repairing electronics on the fly
在车载航天器上，传感器等电子设备的破裂并不少见，这会导致危害其任务的潜力。例如，对于ISS上的湿度传感器，这些传感器对于机组人员的安全至关重要，如果设备故障，则需要在紧急情况下更换或修复它们。
Although shipping replacements to the base may sound like the obvious solution to this problem, doing so makes the craft deployed during supply missions heavier, which in turn, makes the operation considerably more expensive to carry out.
为了解决这个问题，一群名为航空和空间或“忍者”团队的无重力墨水喷气式喷气式飞机的研究人员提出了另一种选择。工程师的方法是在QIN的灵活电子和添加剂打印实验室开发的，涉及使用电水力动力学喷墨印刷机构来创建新颖的申请申请的白银和钛酸钡油墨的零件。
根据该团队的说法，这些材料非常适合电子产品生产，因为它们允许超稳，高分辨率打印，并且有了进一步的研发，它们可以使创建新的灵活传感器，软机器人，电路板的新类别。，半导体和其他微设备，无论是在太空还是在Terra Firma上。
作为一个把方法的第一步the test, Qin and his team built a prototype 3D printer in late-2021, while Iowa State colleague Shan Jiang worked from his lab to perfect his set of conductive inks ahead of parabolic flight tests.
QIN补充说：“我们实验的主要目标是在微重力上打印一个导电电路模式。”“我们测试了具有不同材料特性的多种类型的墨水，例如密度，表面张力和介电常数，同时指出了最佳操作条件，包括电压，脉冲频率和喷嘴方向。”
忍者零重力实验
Once their prototype was ready for testing, the NINJAS crew took it to Fort Lauderdale in Florida, where it was flown by a refitted plane on which conditions simulated those in outer space. The aircraft was able to achieve this by continually flying up and down at 45º angles, allowing, at the very top of this curve, the team and their experiments to experience short periods of weightlessness in microgravity.
However, while the engineers acknowledge that parabolic flight testing was the only way of assessing their 3D printer’s performance without going into space, they emphasize that managing to operate the system in zero-gravity was no mean feat in itself, and described it as akin to “jumping from a building that’s 30,000 feet high for 20-30 seconds.”
“The zero-gravity environment wasn’t even that difficult to adjust to the feeling of,” explained Matthew Marander, one of the Iowa State students that flew as part of the project. “What I felt was more difficult to deal with was the feeling of rapid transition between hyper-gravity, the normal gravity and zero-gravity. Switching between all of them so quickly can feel a little bit disorienting.”
就打印机的性能而言，江恩得出结论，三天测试的第一天是所有参与者的学习经验，但是在第二和第三次的比赛中，团队能够3D打印“一些不错的模式”。在最初的成功之后，研究人员现在已经缩小了他们的研究，在2022年5月的第二次测试之前为其系统和材料开发了升级。
Through their $420,000 project, Jiang added that the team ultimately “wants to help NASA develop a platform that can greatly expand the materials and devices they can make in space,” and they’ve therefore set themselves the longer-term goal of coming up with a novel nozzle head for the ISS printer before 2024.
In-orbit 3D printing in-action
NASA continues to pour a significant amount of time, effort and cash into carrying out Low Earth Orbit (LEO) 3D printing experiments, with the most promising technologies going on to be tested onboard the ISS. Just last year, a欧洲航天局consortium came up with anearly-stage FFF 3D printer，据说能够创建“无限长度”零件，该零件已指定为ISS。
过去，像在太空中制造的一样（现在Redwire），也帮助为国际空间站建立了系统，该公司在开发该电台的发展方面发挥了关键作用plastic recycling facility for 3D printed parts在2019年。该机器被称为“ Braskem Recycler”，将ISS的塑料废物转换为原料，使其能够减少其对供应任务的依赖，并建立近乎关闭的环路生产设置。
远离国际空间站的研究人员慕尼黑应用科学也开发了一个in-orbit satellite 3D printer，可以在空间真空中创建太阳能电池板或天线。与爱荷华州立大学的忍者计划类似，该项目的启动是为了减少不必要的重量在车载航天器上，并允许他们携带更重要的货物（例如燃料）。
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特色图像显示了爱荷华州立大学忍者研究人员在抛物线测试飞行中。通过Steve Boxall/Zero-G的照片。
