NASA Additively Manufactured Rocket Engine Hardware Passes Cold Spray, Hot Fire Tests
NASA is partnering with Aerojet Rocketdyne to advance 3D printing technologies, known as metal additive manufacturing, for liquid rocket engines in landers and in-orbit stages/spacecraft. The Robotic Deposition Technology team, led from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is designing and manufacturing innovative and lightweight combustion chambers, nozzles, and injectors that will incorporate automated robotic deposition 3D-printing technologies.
NASA Joins Two Major Artemis II Core Stage Structures
Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans stacked two of three hardware elements for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket April 28. Crews connected the liquid oxygen tank flight hardware with the intertank. Later, they will add the forward skirt to form the upper portion of the core stage that will help power Artemis II, the first crewed mission of NASA’s Artemis program and second flight of the SLS rocket.
Marshall Research Team Soars to Success in Microgravity
No force – including gravity – could hold a team of NASA researchers down in their quest for a scientific breakthrough to benefit life on Earth and in space. Scientists from Marshall completed two parabolic flights April 28 and 29 to test modifications to the ring-sheared drop experiment, which studies the formation of potentially destructive protein clusters like those found in the brain tissue of patients battling neurodegenerative diseases.
NASA Awards $500K in Phase 1 of the $5M Watts on the Moon Challenge
NASA has awarded $500,000 to seven winning teams in Phase 1 of the agency’s Watts on the Moon Challenge. The technology design competition challenged U.S. innovators, from garage tinkerers to university researchers and startup entrepreneurs, to imagine a next-generation energy infrastructure on the Moon.
Marshall Celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Each May, NASA celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, highlighting and celebrating the work and contributions of team members across the agency. Marshall’s Asian American and Pacific Islander community plays an essential role in helping NASA reach its mission goals, and inspiring the next generation to reach for the stars.
For more information or to learn about other happenings at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit NASA Marshall. For past issues of the ICYMI newsletter, click here.