Spiderfab 3D printers creating large in-space antenna structure

3D printing for large space structures has gotten considerable press recently, following a press conference by startup company Deep Space Industries. Unnoticed by the press is Tethers Unlimited, a small company in Bothell, Washington that’s already working on a 3D printer for large space structures.

Tethers Unlimited has received a $100,000 grant from the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts to begin development of the technology, which the company calls Spiderfab.[August 2013 Update: TU has received an additional $500,000 to continue work for two more years.]

Spiderfab combines the techniques of fused deposition modeling (FDM) with methods derived from automated composite layup to enable rapid construction of very large, lightweight, high-strength, lattice-like structures with both compressive and tensile elements. SpiderFab would enable structures to be launched in extremely compact form as raw feedstock, which would be used to create structures optimized for the microgravity environment rather than the launch environment. The technology could also evolve to use orbital debris and extraterrestrial materials as feedstock.

Spiderfab could create structures with higher-order hierarchies, such as a truss-of-trusses, which can achieve 30-fold mass reductions compared to first-order structures. This approach could enable deployment of antenna reflectors, phased-array antennas, solar panels, and radiators 10-100 times larger than current state-of-the-art deployable structures.

Potential Spiderfab applications include multiple high-gain antennas in Earth and solar orbit to support a deep-space communications network, long-baseline interferometry systems for terrestrial planet-finder programs, and submillimeter astronomy of cosmic structure.

Spiderfab structures would re-configurable and repairable on orbit. The technology could also evolve to use orbital debris and extraterrestrial materials as feedstock.

Written by Astro1 on February 4th, 2013 , Commercial Space (General), Innovation

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COMMENTS
    Randy Moe commented

    Great news. I may live to see this technology reach fruition. Most think I am kidding when I predict large scale additive construction and it’s necessary corollary laser destruction. Imagining microscopic dismantling on a macro scale with structures quietly disappearing seems more difficult than 3D printing. Whatever we imagine is possible.

    Reply
    February 4, 2013 at 10:09 am
    jim brown commented

    This sounds wonderful, but it sounds like a chemical process, but we need air pressure to have liquids doing chemical bluing. It might work with vacuum welding, or tying at the junctions. Then it looks like there is a near clear plastic or glass between the ribs.

    Reply
    February 5, 2013 at 5:39 am