Mission Accomplished in Zero Gravity NASA Demonstration
Auburn NVA-founded NanoPrintek’s Masoud Mahjouri-Samani rides the Vomit Comet — taking advanced additive manufacturing capabilities to new heights
It is one thing to believe that the intricately complex, critically important invention you’ve toiled over for years as a leading research engineer at Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering will work in the zero-gravity world of space just as phenomenally well as it performs here on earth.
It is quite another thing to actually prove it – on your first try.
That’s exactly what NanoPrintek founder Masoud Mahjouri-Samani accomplished a few weeks ago as he rode the Vomit Comet over two days of parabolic flight sessions designed to test the capabilities of his unique, self-contained dry-nanoparticle additive manufacturing system in a zero gravity environment.
The results? Mission Accomplished!
“Our machine works flawlessly in zero gravity with no issue whatsoever,” reported Masoud. “Proving that capability was Mission Objective Number One – and we accomplished it in flying colors. We tested and documented a one hundred percent success rate – one hundred percent! We couldn’t be more pleased to see our expectations confirmed.”
The New Venture Accelerator sat down with Masoud upon his “re-entry” to get an update on how it all went – what transpired as expected, what surprised him and what’s next as he fields growing demand for both his company’s advanced, developmental units as well as their production-ready commercial systems.
Our discussion revealed an extraordinarily powerful partnership growing between Auburn University, NanoPrintek, and NASA – a relationship that is not only serving AU’s research portfolio in space, but also helps NanoPrintek’s own business development prospects while contributing unprecedented value to NASA.
Importantly, it also bolsters the NVA’s mission to help grow promising new ventures at Auburn.
NVA: Let’s start with what it was like – the process of it all, beginning with the preparations you and your team took even before your first flight.
Masoud: First, we had to get our specially designed, compact system to the test flight site in Kansas and we certainly didn’t want to ship it, so we drove 15 hours to get there. Once we got there, we tested the machine on the ground before loading it onto the airplane just to make sure everything was working – to make sure the long drive did not create any issues.
And then we loaded the instrument into the plane and we tested the machine with the plane powered up on the ground before we flew to confirm that our machine worked within the airplane – power source, interference, stability, etc. Everything checked out perfectly, and off we went!
NVA: So, the machine is secured to the floor of the aircraft, right? And then you proceed to conduct these up and down parabolic flights, giving you about 25 seconds of time in each cycle to use the machine to print patterns for circuitry – is 25 seconds enough time to test?
Masoud: Well, the first thing is that we were promised about 20-25 seconds of weightlessness per parabolic cycle – about 30 of them. You can get a lot done in this time, believe it or not.
Secondly, we had pre-programmed our machine to perform meaningful executions of specific lines and patterns within these 25 second intervals – different patterns, the same patterns at different thicknesses, using different materials, that sort of thing – each program timed to fit within those tight windows.
We designed some lines, antennas and different shapes, basically very small shapes. And then we calculated the time it’ll take for these to complete and we adjusted that to fall exactly within a given parabolic cycle.
NVA: Why was this demonstration of executing relatively “simple” lines and patterns in zero gravity so important?
Masoud: Simple, yes – one would think – but we can’t confuse “simple” with “easy.” Remember, we were trying to show that laying down metal lines, patterns, antennas, etc., is the first step in being able to make fully formed circuits and other components in space.
Why is that important?
If we can do that, we can later print semiconductors, dielectrics, composite, etc. If the machine is capable of printing all these elements in space, now you can print all the components that make up different kinds of devices. Various types of functional devices can now be printed in zero or reduced gravity.
Just think back to Apollo 13 and imagine if they needed to replace a malfunctioning circuit critical to their survival in space, on the moon, or on Mars.
There’s no time to ship something up there, is there? There’s no supply chain in space.
With our machine, we just went up there, clicked the button, and away we went. It’s like our machine doesn’t even care where it is. It just prints as directed!
Our machine is literally a complete, self-contained supply chain in space for manufacturing functional components and devices critical to the lives and missions of astronauts in space.
NVA: So now that you’ve gathered what I assume must be a ton of data, what’s next?
Masoud: Yes, we have, and as we speak, we are analyzing all that data, all the prints we made in zero gravity, to see what the difference is in term of materials science. What is the difference between the one that we printed on the ground and the one that we printed in zero gravity? Are they the same? Are they better? Are they worse? We are working on all those things now.
NVA: What’s next for you and NanoPrintek?
Masoud: To begin with, we are going back up again this same time next year. In the meantime, we are busy going through our analyses of various aspects of what we found – confirmation of our machine’s performance parameters on earth and in zero gravity, deviations from expectations, new discoveries – it is a very detailed process.
One thing I will say from a competitive standpoint, though, is that there have been reports of machines using other approaches having to make multiple flights over multiple days before being able to print even one line!
On the other hand, the next time we fly we might print some semiconductors. We printed both copper and silver this time, next time we will be experimenting with printing other materials as well. And then there’s the potential impact of the vacuum of space on printing. On the moon, for example.
NVA: So, you need to test in both zero gravity and the vacuum of space at the same time. How do you do that?
Masoud: Let’s just say we have plans for that – again, we don’t want to discuss those plans at this time.
NVA: On a somewhat different note, the last time we spoke, you were in the process of responding to tremendous interest from research institutions and commercial enterprises alike. How is that going?
Masoud: Very well. Since we last talked, when I told you that we’d just finished an installation at a high-profile research institution, we have been working with multiple prospective customers in both research and commercial markets.
Interestingly, these two seemingly diverse aspects of our application and commercialization focus are tightly intertwined in ways I hadn’t fully anticipated. The marketing value of this most recent demonstration goes well beyond space applications.
It turns out that this zero-gravity test was a great trigger for other customers across all potential uses and applications. They see this machine as going “above and beyond” all others – a very highly qualified, robust machine.
The value of this proof point and what we learned in zero gravity is certainly a huge brand builder and helps raise the visibility and reputation for the unparalleled performance our machine delivers and the expertise of the company itself.
It is also showing the ability of our machine to work in a variety of other remote, harsh environments – including battlefield and other hostile scenarios.
It is like what they say about New York City – “I we can make it there; we can make it anywhere!”
And so, we will.
To learn more about NanoPrintek, contact Masoud Mahjouri Samani at mzm0185@auburn.edu
To learn more about Auburn University’s New Venture Accelerator, contact Lou Bifano at loubifano@auburn.edu