Additive Manufacturing with Hypothesized Surface Materials – (Asteroid) Beltway Builders
INSTITUTION
University of Georgia (UGA)
CLASS
Platinum Class (2025 – 2026)
STUDENT TEAM
ACADEMIC GUIDANCE
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
16-Psyche, an asteroid that is hypothesized to be metal-rich, is located in the asteroid belt beyond Mars. NASA sees promise in Psyche’s potential to exhibit In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) to additively manufacture components for deep-space travel. One direct application involves additive manufacturing within the asteroid’s unique environment. Naturally, this calls for efforts to adapt common manufacturing practices to the low-gravity, extreme thermal fluctuation, and vacuum properties of Psyche’s environment.
Our goal is to further the search for understanding of how common additive manufacturing processes behave in and are affected by Psyche’s environment, particularly regarding low-gravity, thermal-cycling, and a vacuum. Our team will evaluate the feasibility of this hypothesized environment to support AM processes to make 3D structures from refined metals (iron and nickel) through the use of an adapted Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) manufacturing process. This can be accomplished by thoughtful modeling and system design, and the use of digital simulations of thermal and fluid behavior.
Our process for accomplishing our goals is dual-faceted: design and optimization. Our designs are based on industry research into FDM applications and insight from experts in the field. Our simulation-based approach for analyzing the thermal and physical behavior of additive manufacturing processes is implemented using ANSYS Fluent. From such we could design an adapted additive manufacturing process that we predicted would meet the environmental constraints of Psyche; following such a design, we would develop an optimization procedure, focusing on one specific aspect of the manufacturing process (nozzle geometry) to develop further research and insight. Our final investigation into a fully adapted FDM process is a path that NASA-ASU can continue and further explore if the Capstone team determines the system’s feasibility.
The capstone team approached the challenge as a decoupled optimization process. Once the team successfully simulated a baseline FDM nozzle/extrusion system on Earth, we could apply Psyche’s environmental constraints to explore how the system degrades. We could then explore individually optimizing the nozzle geometry and extrusion system in separate simulations for Psyche’s conditions. Once finished, a final integrated system simulation validates our optimization studies that can be compared to the original baseline.
This project has financial, operational, and intangible impacts by supporting the development of in-space manufacturing capabilities. Utilizing local materials can reduce mission costs and improve sustainability, while a reliable FDM system enhances flexibility through on-demand manufacturing and repair. The work also contributes to emerging research in space-based manufacturing and provides valuable insight for future missions, while acknowledging key technical risks and ethical considerations related to system reliability and resource use.
