Additive Manufacturing Technology to Enhance Environmental Control Life Support (ECLS) Equipment Performance While Reducing Its Weight and Volume

摘要

Spacecraft planned for exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) require ECLSsystems to be greatly reduced in weight and volume from the current ISS platforms.Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology that enables component size andmass reduction by allowing the production of complex functional geometry and componentintegration. AM achieves this by melting powder metal as directed by computer solidmodels. Technology development underway intends to supply custom metallic powder,design machines using alternate methods for ‘growing’ deliverable products and in-situmethods to control the melting and curing of material within the machines. DesignEngineers will need to learn how to create designs that take full advantage of the expandeddesign to fully appreciate the full capacity of AM. In 2008, aluminum impellers within theInternational Space Station (ISS) Rotary Water Separator were replaced with an AMtitanium version of the same geometry. Discussion of knowledge gained during thedevelopment of the new ISS hardware will be used throughout this paper to illustrate thesteps required to produce qualified flight hardware.