标题: Orbital Matter Prints Half-Meter Rigid Beam in Open Orbital Vacuum [打印本页] 作者: admin 时间: 2026-11-4 20:20 标题: Orbital Matter Prints Half-Meter Rigid Beam in Open Orbital Vacuum On November 3, 2026, Nanjixiong learned that German startup Orbital Matter's Replicator-2 satellite had printed in open low-Earth-orbit vacuum, extruding resin and curing it with ultraviolet light into a rigid cylindrical beam half a meter long.
(, 下载次数: 0)
上传
点击文件名下载附件
Launched on a SpaceX rideshare this summer, Replicator-2 carries four proprietary PADS printers. Earlier space printing was confined to pressurized ISS cabins. NASA funded similar ground-vacuum tests by Redwire, but those did not fly. This is described as the first resin print by a free-flying spacecraft in open vacuum, microgravity, and alternating extreme temperatures.
The technology targets large orbital solar arrays and thermal structures. Working with ESA and Thales Alenia, Orbital Matter plans a next-generation mission in 2028 to validate printing a 5 kW array, targeting more than 100 kW per wing in 2030.
Nanjixiong's Observations
Space manufacturing shifts from folding and deployment toward growing structures in orbit. Structures too large for fairings can be printed directly. Resin photopolymerization uses less power than metal melting, but a half-meter beam is only a beginning; hundred-meter structures will be the true test.
AI-translated from an article by Kuaixiong on Nanjixiong, originally published on 2026-11-04. Text and images retain the original source attribution. Read the original Chinese article
欢迎光临 All Voice of China 3D Printing (https://www.panda3dp.com/)