Published: May 1, 2021

On April 30th, members of the BEEM Lab and PARC, A Xerox Company, completed our final parabolic flight for our project titled Viability of in-Situ Lunar Manufacturing of Life Support Systems using a Direct Writing Technique, funded under NASA's Tech Flights Program. We demonstrated both single and mulit-layer extrusion-based 3D printing of various inks, including inks formed from lunar regolith, under Martian, Lunar, and micro gravitational conditions on board a ZeroG parabolic flight. Data from the flight will help in understanding design rules, thereby enabling off-earth additive manufacturing for the fabrication of complex functional parts (such as those required for life-support systems).

Photo Credit: ZeroG

team with planeCharlotte and KentJB and JorgeJB with printerTeam with experimentGreg and JB