A science experiment in space, cutting metal for the first time!

[thewayne]

Basically they launched a little milling machine on the end of a robotic arm that had one objective: cut through a piece of composite that simulated the exterior of a rocket's upper stage. The concept being that cutting and welding are very messy processes, but on Earth the debris just falls to the ground, in space it's kind of a problem. The experiment was to do it cleanly in microgravity, and it was a success.

Pretty cool!

It wasn't a 100% success: there were two other samples to be cut through, and that didn't happen and they don't know why.

The experiment was launched on SpaceX early this year and was carried out in May, the results announced Friday.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/16/nanoracks-metal-cutting/

https://science.slashdot.org/story/22/09/16/2226205/nanoracks-cut-a-piece-of-metal-in-space-for-the-first-time

Comments

[disneydream06]

Cool. :)
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

If you can do most of your manufacturing in microgravity and keep the debris contained, then that opens up the possibility of constructing very large structures without having to worry about how they're going to get up into orbit. That's a good idea if we can do it well.

[thewayne]

This, combined with the 3D printer in space that I posted a couple of months back....