NASA Associate Administrator for Space Technology Steve Jurczyk will tour Made In Space Inc. facilities with company president Andrew Rush, and learn about the progress made on its in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly system, Archinaut, at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Aug. 10, at the NASA Research Park in Moffett Field, California.
Media are invited to learn about test results on Archinaut, see a demonstration of the Extended Structure Additive Manufacturing Machine (ESAMM), and tour Made In Space’s robotics room. Jurczyk and Rush will be available to speak to media following remarks and prior to the robotics room tour.
ESAMM is a manufacturing method which incorporates Archinaut’s additive manufacturing system with a robotic manipulator to create objects in free-space and install both additively manufactured and pre-fabricated components. ESAMM successfully printed a beam, 33 inches in length, in simulated space-like conditions. This is the first-ever build of a beam in free-space in a simulated space environment.
Made In Space is one of three companies selected to develop robotic in-space manufacturing and assembly of spacecraft and space structures through NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) “Utilizing Public-Private Partnerships to Advance Tipping Point Technologies” solicitation.
Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia, and Space Systems Loral of Palo Alto, California, were also selected under the solicitation to mature technologies beyond their “tipping point” with the goal of enabling private industry to develop and qualify them for market, and delivering technologies and capabilities needed for future NASA missions and commercial applications.
Made In Space is located in the NASA Research Park at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Made In Space’s Archinaut project is being developed for STMD and managed by the Technology Demonstration Missions Program. STMD is responsible for developing the crosscutting, pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future space exploration missions.
Interested members of the news media who wish to attend should contact Kimberly Minafra at 650-604-2457 or kimberly.minafra@nasa.gov by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
For more information about NASA’s in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly projects, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/tdm/irma/index.html
For more information about STMD’s continued investments in space technology development, demonstration and infusion, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/spacetech
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Kimberly Minafra
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
650-604-4789
kimberly.minafra@nasa.gov
Gina Anderson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1160
gina.n.anderson@nasa.gov
Text issued as Ames media advisory 17-010AM