3D Printing as an Engineering Solution
mattm's picture
Posted on:
Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 11:37

Interesting article on the use of 3D printing in various space programs including at NASA: https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/18/nasa-orion-crew-capsule-3d-printing

I've had a couple of conversations about 3D printing of parts needed on board the ship - one discussion was around using this kind of technology to produce torpedo casings on demand to increase the effective inventory that could be carried on a mission, for example.

I think there's a case to be made for looking at this technology as a way to produce other kinds of parts that might be needed? What kind of materials would work best with this kind of process?

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Slydev's picture

Submitted by Slydev on April 25, 2018 - 15:10

Having a 3d printer on a spaceship is not only useful, it is essential. This is due to a few rules about space exporation:

We don't know what problems we will run into
We have limited storage space on the ship

Recently 3d printing was featured in netflix's reboot of 'lost in space'

3d Printing is very useful as a plot device. While we don't need to show the printer or even what it printed it can be a good reasoning for us being able to have the tools that we might not have had earlier.

I feel that we can take this further and make it become part of the experience, though this might be a bit much. Basically if I were to be making a spaceship for deep space exploring I would have a printer (or printers) that would give a wide range of solutions and actually be part of the ship itself. This is what I call the 'Automated Fabrication Plant' (AFP) which sole purpose is to turn raw materials (metal, plastic, whatever we find too) into useful items for engagement.

The first items that came to mind was the torpedos and also panels for repairing the ship's damage. If these items are printed that gives us some things to work with:
- While we will have a set amount of torpedos what do we do if we run out? Where will we get more, can we get more during battle? This might be the solution to this problem.
- Another gameplay mechanic involving printing out parts to repair the ship real time.

The printer itself will need an interface designed for it, but basically, like everything on the ship, it uses power. One could dial as much or as little power to it and that would effect the printing speed of the machine.
We could get more advanced and also have a print size that items have which will impace printing time as well as have to be placed on the printing platform to make a tetris like solution. Do I print more torpedoes? Or do I print just one at a time so we can keep getting them out?

If this is the case orders to print should be able to come from the bridge crew as well as engineering themselves. People would send them with priority and then it would be upto the AFP manager to make sure they get pushed through (while also having to ask themselves for power to run the AFP).

This might be adding too much complexity or the wrong approach but putting the idea out there as it could become part of the core mechanic.

Worst case though I feel that establishing that there is a printer onboard (that can do most materials) answers a lot of questions that the audience may have and gives us a good excuse to be able to bring in new things in an environment that normally would be static.

If people like the idea I might whip up an interface on what this may look like, but I would rather people discuss how they think it should work and even if they like the idea or not. I am not across everything yet and I would hate for this to contradict or overcomplicate things that are already setup so always weary of this and would like to know so I can change how it should work.

 

Alfisti's picture

Submitted by Alfisti on April 26, 2018 - 21:44

I think some sort of 3D printing capacity would be a definitely be a must-have. Even if it couldn't manage heavily stressed parts, or complex components in their entirity it would free up storage space. Taking the torpedo idea as an example, you might not be able to fabricate sensor arrays, but possibly the components for, and certainly the torpedo bodies. Having, say, a 10-ish round ready magazine for each tube combined with a printer would free up a lot of space. I guess it would come down to the limitations of the tech, and what is better carried as raw materials and what would be better carried as pre-fabricated components (eg. warhead physics package).

Slydev's picture

Submitted by Slydev on April 30, 2018 - 17:49

While during quiet times I am sure we will print out some torpedoes that are good to go the AFP will be a way for us to get more during battle and will lead to the ship being much more dynamic. What outfit with the captain (gunnery cheif?) go for? How will that change over time depending on where we are and what we might be up against. How will the crew go with trial an error against new enemies, what will become a favorite.

I think we should also have a way to 'liquidate' current supply too incase they are not needed. Turning the missile back to it's raw components (either 1:1 or less). This also will take power and time. But could be crucial if we go up against something that is useless against our current payload.

Getting into comabt dynamics which I feel is for another section, but we can see the knockon effect this has.

Ultimately I think it is something that can have a nice interface for, makes the setup more dynamic and interesting and lets the crew change up how things work while providing solutions to the issues of space and preparing the torpedoes.

Alfisti's picture

Submitted by Alfisti on April 30, 2018 - 22:34

Liquidating might be one option, or even just disassembly. Some of the torpedo concepts allowed for a modular system where the sensor package, warload, and torpedo body with comms etc, made up separate components (similar to how modern missiles can be fitted with different warheads). A torpedo body is probably still a torpedo body, no matter what is put on the front of it, but sensor packages and warheads might be up for chopping and changing. Some might not work so well, I'm unsure of how well a nuclear warhead's physics package would lend itself to being 3d printed (plus it might not be something you want the crew to have an unlimited supply of), but kenetic penetrators and whatever else might be viable certainly.

Those components not in use might be moved off to a cargo bay, though that of course will require time for a warm body or two to manually pull that torpedo out of the queue and trolley it off down the passage.

mattm's picture

Submitted by mattm on May 1, 2018 - 14:10

... that the printer will use? Will it be some kind of alloy, which would require a great deal of heat to get to a form that could be delivered by a 3D printer? Or some kind of composite material (bearing in mind that these are usually light, and the main damage a torpedo inflicts is kinetic - a function of its mass (and speed)?

We have the concept of materials manipulated at the quantum level to give them exotic properties (such as superconduction at room temperature used for powerful field generation). This technology is known as QCD and is something we recovered from captured alien vessels - see an overview here.

Is there a type of QCD-manipulation that could allow a metallic material to be made malleable or liquid enough to work with a 3D printing concept? Or something similar?