Researchers 3D-Print Moon Rover Wheel Prototype With NASA

• ORNL collaborated with NASA to 3D-print a lunar rover wheel based mostly on a NASA design.
• The undertaking demonstrated the potential of additive manufacturing for creating extremely specialised components wanted for house exploration.
• NASA plans to check the printed wheel’s efficiency to check with a historically manufactured wheel that will probably be used on the moon subsequent yr.
• The ORNL-printed wheel prototype was in a position to incorporate extra design options and complexity right into a single piece, whereas taking much less time and manpower to make.

Researchers on the Division of Vitality’s Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory, in collaboration with NASA, are taking additive manufacturing to the ultimate frontier by 3D-printing the identical type of wheel because the design utilized by NASA for its robotic lunar rover, demonstrating the expertise for specialised components wanted for house exploration.

Members of the workforce that printed the rover wheel prototype show the lead to entrance of the laser powder mattress printer the place it was created within the MDF. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality

The additively manufactured wheel was modeled on the present, lightweight wheels of the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, a cellular robotic NASA plans to ship in 2024 to map ice and different potential sources on the south pole of the moon. The mission is meant to assist decide the origin and distribution of the moon’s water and whether or not sufficient may very well be harvested from the moon’s floor to help folks residing there.

Whereas the prototype wheel printed at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF, at ORNL won’t really be used on the NASA Moon mission, it was created to satisfy the identical design specs because the wheels made for NASA’s VIPER. Extra testing is deliberate to validate the design and fabrication technique earlier than utilizing this expertise for future lunar or Mars rovers or contemplating it for different house purposes, comparable to giant structural parts.

Additive manufacturing can scale back power use, materials waste and lead time, whereas enabling design complexity and the tailoring of fabric properties. MDF is on the forefront of this effort, creating the expertise for over a decade for a variety of purposes within the clear power, transportation and manufacturing sectors. MDF researchers printed the rover wheel prototype at ORNL in Fall 2022. A specialised 3D printer used two coordinated lasers and a rotating construct plate to selectively soften metallic powder into the designed form.

Regardless of enabling a extra advanced spoke sample and spoke locking options for the wheel, 3D-printing simplified and decreased the price of the wheel design and made remaining meeting simpler. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality

Additive manufacturing can scale back power use, materials waste and lead time, whereas enabling design complexity and the tailoring of fabric properties. MDF is on the forefront of this effort, creating the expertise for over a decade for a variety of purposes within the clear power, transportation and manufacturing sectors. MDF researchers printed the rover wheel prototype at ORNL in Fall 2022. A specialised 3D printer used two coordinated lasers and a rotating construct plate to selectively soften metallic powder into the designed form.

Typical metallic powder mattress methods function in steps: In a machine the scale of a cupboard, they rake a layer of powder over a stationary plate. Then a laser selectively melts a layer earlier than the plate lowers barely and the method repeats. The printer used for the rover wheel prototype is giant sufficient for an individual to enter and is exclusive in its potential to print giant objects whereas the steps happen concurrently and constantly, stated Peter Wang, who leads MDF growth of latest laser powder mattress fusion methods.

Additive manufacturing permits superb design particulars, comparable to wavy tread on a domed form, to be integrated into the prototype lunar wheel. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality

“This dramatically will increase the manufacturing fee with the identical quantity of laser energy,” he stated, including that deposition happens 50% sooner. “We’re solely scratching the floor of what the system can do. I actually suppose that is going to be the way forward for laser powder mattress printing, particularly at giant scale and in mass manufacturing.” Wang and undertaking workforce members lately printed a research, discovered right here, analyzing the scalability of the expertise for printing parts like electrical motors.

Though the machine is exclusive, a key to the success of the undertaking was researchers’ experience in course of automation and machine management. They used software program developed at ORNL to “slice” the wheel design into vertical layers, then stability the workload between the 2 lasers to print evenly, reaching a excessive manufacturing fee, leveraging a computational approach lately submitted for patent safety.

ORNL researchers on the MDF monitored the printing of the prototype lunar wheel as two lasers melted metallic powder to construct it up, layer by layer. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality

The prototype wheel, one of many first components produced by the system, demonstrates the worth of interagency collaboration. “The undertaking with NASA actually propelled the expertise ahead,” stated Brian Gibson, the researcher who led the rover wheel undertaking for ORNL, calling it a milestone. “It was nice to attach a functionality with a creating want, and the workforce was excited to be making a prototype element with house exploration purposes.”

In just some days, ORNL researchers used powder mattress printing to create this lunar rover wheel based mostly on a NASA design. Credit score: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Vitality

The prototype wheel, one of many first components produced by the system, demonstrates the worth of interagency collaboration. “The undertaking with NASA actually propelled the expertise ahead,” stated Brian Gibson, the researcher who led the rover wheel undertaking for ORNL, calling it a milestone. “It was nice to attach a functionality with a creating want, and the workforce was excited to be making a prototype element with house exploration purposes.”

Made from a nickel-based alloy, the prototype wheel is about 8 inches vast and 20 inches in diameter — a lot bigger than typical components printed with metallic powder mattress methods. Making it required the flexibility to print small geometric options unfold over a big work space. Additive manufacturing enabled higher complexity within the rim design with out added value or manufacturing issue, Gibson stated.

As compared, the 4 VIPER wheels that can churn by moon mud subsequent yr required a number of manufacturing processes and meeting steps. VIPER’s 50-piece wheel rim is held along with 360 riveted joints. The manufacturing course of required sophisticated and time-intensive machining with a view to meet the mission’s rigorous necessities.

If NASA testing proves the 3D-printed prototype to be as strong as conventionally constructed wheels, future rovers may as an alternative use a single printed wheel rim, which took ORNL 40 hours to fabricate. By means of the undertaking, ORNL and NASA engineers additionally explored printing exact design options, comparable to angled sidewalls, a domed form and wavy tread to extend the wheel’s stiffness. These traits are tough to include within the present VIPER wheel design utilizing conventional fabrication strategies. Regardless of enabling a extra advanced spoke sample and spoke locking options to the wheel, 3D printing simplified and decreased the price of the wheel design and made remaining meeting simpler.

“Loads of these wheel options had been put in simply to focus on what you are able to do with additive manufacturing,” stated Richard Hagen, a mechanical design engineer for NASA and additive manufacturing lab supervisor at NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston. “It permits you to simply implement design options which might be onerous to implement with conventional tooling or perhaps a historically machined half.” ORNL’s potential to print giant objects demonstrates the potential of additive manufacturing expertise for producing a lot bigger rover wheels for each lunar and Martian missions, Hagen stated.

A problem is that the specialised printer solely builds with sure supplies — on this case, a nickel-based alloy — so the 3D-printed wheel is 50% heavier than the aluminum VIPER wheel, whereas printed at the same thickness.

NASA plans to check the 3D-printed wheel’s efficiency on a rover both within the rock yard at NASA’s Johnson House Middle or in a large “sandbox” of simulated lunar rocks and soil at a contracted check facility. Evaluators will assess the wheel’s maneuverability, pivoting resistance, sideways slippage, slope climbing and different efficiency metrics.

Hagen stated additive manufacturing gives the benefit of speedy design updates in response to testing. It could additionally incorporate extra complexity, comparable to a suspension system, with out including weak factors.

Hagen stated crewed analysis stations positioned on the moon as a part of the company’s Artemis Program will want off-planet manufacturing functionality. “With the ability to construct components in house for repairs will probably be vital, since you simply can’t take sufficient spares,” he stated. “Powder, pellets or filament for printing are quite a bit simpler to pack and would permit for extra flexibility.”

“Additive manufacturing gives the pliability that when you’ve got the feedstock, you might make any alternative half you want, whether or not in house or on Earth,” Gibson stated. This can be a motive additive manufacturing has generated important curiosity for a variety of alternative wants, from quickly manufactured tooling to hard-to-source castings and forgings. For house exploration and habitation, 3D printers may finally use native materials from the moon or Mars as a feedstock.

Different ORNL researchers concerned within the undertaking embrace Jay Reynolds, Gordon Robertson, Greg Larsen, Jamie Stump, Michael Borish, Chris Ledford, Ryan Dehoff and former ORNL employees member Charles Wade, with technical help from Ryan Duncan and Jeremy Malmstead. The analysis was funded by NASA and DOE’s Superior Supplies and Manufacturing Applied sciences Workplace, or AMMTO, and occurred at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. The ability is dwelling to the MDF Consortium, a nationwide group of collaborators working with ORNL to advance state-of-the-art manufacturing applied sciences within the U.S. underneath the steering of AMMTO.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Division of Vitality’s Workplace of Science, the only largest supporter of fundamental analysis within the bodily sciences in america. The Workplace of Science is working to handle a few of the most urgent challenges of our time. For extra info, please go to power.gov/science.

Article courtesy of Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory.

Contact: Greg Cunningham cunninghamgs@ornl.gov