Nanoracks made space construction and manufacturing history by demonstrating cutting for the first time.
The experiment was conducted by Nanoracks and itsby parent company Voyager Space, after they reached orbit on the SpaceX Transporter 5. The purpose of the Outpost Mars Demo-1 mission is to cut a piece of corrosion-resistant metal similar to the outer shell of the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket. This metal often turns into space debris.
“Welding and cutting metal is a dirty operation, evenon Earth, but all that dust and debris just falls to the ground. But when you're in space, it all just flies apart,” said Marshall Smith, senior vice president of space systems at Nanoracks. “We need to contain this garbage in order to keep the working environment clean.”
Rocket used to cut metal
The whole operation lasted about one minute. The main goal, to cut one small sample of steel, was achieved in a minute.
The study was carried out in partnership withcompany Maxar Technologies, she developed a robotic arm that cuts metal. This arm used a commercially available friction milled end effector and the entire structure was inside the Outpost spacecraft to keep debris out.
Nanoracks used a type of metal that looks like a rocket upper stage because the company's long-term goal is to modify used upper stages and turn them into orbital platforms.
“We are constantly launching booster stages,”the researchers noted. “Imagine that in the long run, you can put together one, two, three, four of these steps and move them apart so that they are in contact with each other, and then put them together and create large structures that can be used for various purposes.”
According to the researchers, this is just the beginning. In the future, Nanoracks will try to make larger and larger metal cuts in order to carry out large-scale construction work in space.
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