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NASA to enlist robotics to build largest ever composite launch vehicle components
At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight
Center (Huntsville, AL, US), a
massive robotic automated fiber
placement (AFP) system will soon
help the US space agency build
the biggest composite parts ever
made for space vehicles.
“Marshall has been investing in
composites for a long time,” says
Preston Jones, deputy director of
Marshall’s Engineering Directorate.
“This addition to Marshall’s
Composites Technology Center
provides modern technology to
develop low-cost and high-speed
manufacturing processes for
making large composite rocket
structures. We will build and test
these structures to determine if they are a good fit for space
vehicles that will carry humans on exploration missions to
Mars and other places.” Because lightweight composites
have the potential to increase the payload that can be
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carried by a rocket and lower its
total production cost, NASA is
conducting composites manufacturing
technology development
and demonstration projects to
determine whether composites
can be part of not only an evolved
Space Launch System but also
other exploration spacecraft, such
as landers, rovers and habitats.
“The robot will build structures
larger than 8m ... in diameter, some
of the largest composite structures
ever constructed for space
vehicles,” says Justin Jackson, the
Marshall materials engineer who
installed and checked out the
robot and helped build and test
one of the largest composite rocket fuel tanks yet made.
“Composite manufacturing has advanced tremendously in
the last few years, and NASA is using this industrial automated
fiber placement tool in new ways to advance space
exploration. Marshall’s investment in
this robot will help mature composites
manufacturing technology that
may lead to more affordable space
vehicles.”
The robot is mounted on a 12.2mlong
track in Marshall’s Composites
Technology Center, which is part of
NASA’s National Center for Advanced
Manufacturing. The AFP head on the
end of its 6.4m robot arm (the head
is provided by Electroimpact Mukilteo,
WA, US, see photo) articulates in
multiple directions. The head can hold
as many as 16 spools of carbon fiber.
The first project that the robot
will tackle is making large composite
structures for a Technology
Demonstration Mission (TDM)
program managed by Marshall for the
Space Technology Mission Directorate.
For the project, engineers will design,
build, test and address flight certification
of large composite structures
similar to those that might be infused
into upgrades for an evolved Space
Launch System.
The large structures built by the
robotic system will be tested in
nearby Marshall structural test stands
where spaceflight conditions can be
simulated.
24 SEPTEMBER 2015
CompositesWorld