/ News
Build Giant Objects in Space With the Help of 3D Printing — Introducing The Trusselator
The Trusselator is aimed at creating, through the use of in-space additive manufacturing, a series of high-performance trusses to handle large solar arrays and antennas, and NASA says Tethers Unlimited has been awarded $750,000 to continue development of the technology.
The funds will come from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program and the NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program.
It’s all part of a group of ideas Tethers Unlimited Inc. (TUI) is developing under the umbrella of their SpiderFab project, a plan to fabricate spacecraft components in Earth orbit.
The architecture of the project integrates elements of 3D printing, automated composite layup, and robotic assembly to build large, lightweight structures to support solar cells and reflectors.
It’s not small thinking as the various elements will be used to create antennas and solar arrays the size of a sports stadium.
The companies hope to solve a major problem with space travel: how developers can manufacture affordable space systems larger than those which can be built on the Earth and then launched inside a rocket.
“Developing the Trusselator device is the key first step in implementing the SpiderFab capability for in-space manufacturing,” says Dr. Robert Hoyt, CEO and Chief Scientist at TUI. “Our goal with this effort is to dramatically reduce the costs of building large systems in space. In the new SBIR effort, we will develop a prototype Trusselator designed to operate in the vacuum environment of space and test it in our new space simulation facility.”
Over the long haul, Hoyt says the idea of manufacturing spacecraft components in orbit will one day prove critical to projects like a manned missions to Mars.
The companies say the technology could also be used to create solar sails of enormous size, antennas for high-bandwidth communications, and masts many kilometers long for interferometric astronomy projects.
It all comes down to making improvements in packing efficiency and launch mass, and Phase I of the Trusselator effort has already demonstrated that fabrication of continuous lengths of high-performance carbon fiber truss, using a novel additive manufacturing process, have superior bending stiffness efficiency when compared to existing deployable mast technologies.
The company says Phase II of the effort will take on the the key technical risks and further develop the process by refining the additive manufacturing process elements the truss products, and then work on design and prototype elements of a “Trusselator” which can work in the “thermal-vacuum environment” of space. Do you think you’ll live to see the day when additive manufacturing processes are used to create huge projects in space? Let us know what you think in the Trusselator thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/31075/tethers-unlimited-trusselator/
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru