Plenary 2: Applications & Markets II

In-Space Manufacturing: A Multimaterial Fab Lab for the International Space Station
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
10:45 AM - 11:10 AM

This talk will present an overview of NASA's In-space Manufacturing (ISM) Initiative and the developments to date. Currently, the capability to reproduce or repair failed devices and hardware does not exist in the International Space Station (ISS) or beyond low earth orbit. Delivering on-demand manufacturing capability to ISS and beyond enables the possibility of terrestrial self-supporting manufacturing infrastructures to be deployed anywhere regardless of how isolated the environment. This framework for sustainability will apply to many areas within In-Space Manufacturing and will lead to a decrease in cost of future missions, ground operations, and earth dependence. The talk will show the current capabilities in ISS and how they are getting utilized. Printable electronics is key to meeting demands in ISS for gas, bio and radiation sensors, batteries, supercapacitors, memory devices, Rf antennas and many other components. Our Printable Electronics program has developed much of these capabilities and examples will be presented. The author thanks the NASA ISM Team and the Printable Electronics Team at NASA Ames.