European startup Orbex’s new rocket printer is the latest example of how 3D printing revolutionizes the space launch industry. The company’s rocket will launch small, polar-orbiting satellites from its home spaceport in Scotland. But doing this reliably while keeping costs low can only happen by 3D-printing Orbex’s rocket engines, turbopumps and other components. That’s why they commissioned “the largest industrial 3D printer in Europe” from Additive Manufacturing Customized Machines (AMCM).
“A large-scale in-house 3D printing system like this gives us far greater speed and agility as we ramp up production,” Orbex CEO Chris Larmour said. “Longer term, as we get ready for multiple launches per year, it will give us greater control over our costs and supply chain.”
Rocket engines require complex geometries to control the intense forces and heat in their combustion chambers and nozzles. Traditional manufacturing techniques require welding together multiple parts to achieve the final result — a process that can take years to finish.
Additive Manufacturing Powers New Space and Old Space
Dozens of startups around the world are taking the same path as Orbex by changing the math of rocket economics. Relativity Space holds the current record for the world’s largest 3D rocket printer. Had the American startup used traditional manufacturing, its Aeon rocket engines would require more than 100,000 parts and take 24 months to build. Thanks to additive manufacturing, the Aeon engine has fewer than 1,000 parts and only takes 2 months to build. Relativity also reduced its iteration cycles from 48 months to only 6 months.
Faster iteration times let rocket scientists make bigger bets on innovation. This video from Additive Experimental shows how a rocket technology development project benefits from rapid prototyping. The design studio wanted to test a new approach to cooling rocket combustion chambers. Rather than spending millions of dollars over several years, they used a Formlabs Form 3 resin printer to quickly iterate their design.
Yet startups hoping to launch small satellites aren’t the only ones benefiting from 3D printing. So is one of the oldest players in the space business. NASA’s Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology (RAMPT) program uses 3D printing to reduce the weight and cost of rocket engines for deep space exploration.
“This 3D printed technology is a game-changer when it comes to reducing total hardware manufacturing time and cost,” NASA test engineer Tom Teasley said after the RAMPT team performed 23 hot-fire tests of the new engine. “These hot-fire tests are a critical step in preparing this hardware for use in future Moon and Mars missions.”
3D Printing to Infinity and Beyond
The recent partnership between Orbex and AMCM is not the first example of additive manufacturing in the rocket business and it won’t be the last. From new rocket companies like Orbex to the veterans at NASA to tabletop experimenters, 3D printing is revolutionizing the way the world sends satellites and people into space.
