The Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) project, led by NASA Marshall, stands at the leading edge of additive manufacturing. "Across NASA's storied legacy of vehicle and hardware design, testing, and integration, our underlying strength is in our application of extremely durable and severe environment materials and innovative manufacturing for component design," said Paul Gradl, the project's co-principal investigator at NASA Marshall. "We strive to fully understand the microstructure and properties of every material and how they will ultimately be used in components before we make them available to industry for flight applications."
Additive manufacturing, which builds components layer by layer, follows the same meticulous principles. "The RAMPT project's goal is to support commercial, technical readiness, enabling our industry partners to meet the challenges inherent in building new generations of safer, more cost-effective deep space exploration propulsion systems," explained John Fikes, RAMPT project manager.
Since its start, RAMPT has conducted 500 test-firings of 3D-printed injectors, nozzles, and chamber hardware, accumulating over 16,000 seconds of testing. These tests utilized new extreme-environment alloys, large-scale additive manufacturing processes, and advanced composite technology. The project is also working on a full-scale version for the RS-25 engine, which could reduce costs by up to 70% and cut manufacturing time in half.
As the scale of 3D-printed structures increases, additive manufacturing researchers are now creating more intricate and robust rocket engine components up to 10 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter. "NASA, through public-private partnerships, is making these breakthroughs accessible to the commercial space industry to help them rapidly advance new flight technologies of their own," said Gradl. "We're solving technical challenges, creating new supply chains for parts and materials, and increasing the industry's capacity to rapidly deliver reliable hardware that draws a busy commercial space infrastructure ever closer."
RAMPT's focus extends beyond developing end technology to understanding it thoroughly, employing advanced simulation tools to evaluate new alloys and composites at the microstructural level. These tools assess how materials endure the intense conditions of space missions, from liftoff to landing.
NASA promotes commercial and academic involvement by offering public-private partnership opportunities, where industry and academia can contribute up to 25% of project development costs, sharing in the benefits. For instance, NASA provided a refined alloy, GRCop42, to Relativity Space, enabling the launch of the first fully 3D-printed rocket in March 2023.
"Our primary goal with these higher-performance alloys is to prove them in a rocket engine test-fire environment and then hand them off to enable commercial providers to build hardware, fly launch vehicles, and foster a thriving space infrastructure with real scientific, social, and economic rewards," Gradl said.
Additive manufacturing significantly shortens the "design-fail-fix" cycle, allowing engineers to test new hardware quickly, adjust designs, and develop new materials and techniques. The RAMPT project has successfully advanced new alloys and processes, integrating them with carbon-fiber composites to reduce weight by up to 40%. These advancements, validated through new simulation tools, are made available to industry through public-private partnerships.
"We're able to deliver prototypes in weeks instead of years, conduct dozens of scaled ground tests in a period that would feasibly permit just one or two such tests of conventionally manufactured hardware, and most importantly, deliver technology solutions that are safer, lighter, and less costly than traditional components," Gradl noted.
Fikes added, "Ten years from now, we may be building rocket engines - or rockets themselves - out of entirely new materials, employing all-new processing and fabrication techniques. NASA is central to all of that."
The RAMPT project continues to advance and earn recognition from NASA and industry partners. On July 31, the RAMPT team received NASA's 2024 Invention of The Year award for its significant contributions to NASA and the commercial industry's deep space exploration goals.
Related Links
Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology
Space Technology News - Applications and Research
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