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UCSD Students Test Fire 3D-Printed Metal Rocket Engine

Posted by timothy on from the mail-order-is-cheaper dept.

schwit1 writes "Like something out of a Robert Heinlein novel, students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have built a metal rocket engine using a technique previously confined to NASA. Earlier this month, the UCSD chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) at the Jacobs School of Engineering conducted a hot fire test for a 3D-printed metal rocket engine at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site in California's Mojave Desert. This is the first such test of a printed liquid-fueled, metal rocket engine by any university in the world and the first designed and printed outside of NASA."

6 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. So did it work? by Arancaytar · · Score: 4, Informative

    News summaries are allowed to contain spoilers, you know.

    (RTFA, and it did work.)

    1. Re:So did it work? by moteyalpha · · Score: 2

      It was an interesting article. I was hoping for something more detailed and technical as well as new. Printed guns got a lot of coverage and I thought that was just a way to get attention through controversy. A rocket that could be -completely- printed would be a far more effective weapon. What I did not appreciate was a gizmag popup that asked for my email to subscribe. I am capable of discovering what I want to read and when.

    2. Re:So did it work? by camperdave · · Score: 2

      News summaries are allowed to contain spoilers, you know.

      (RTFA, and it did work.)

      No, The summary did just what it was supposed to do: entice you to Read The Fancy Article. If it contianed the spoiler, you wouldn't have read the article.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  2. Really? by Dodgy+G33za · · Score: 2

    "and the first designed and printed outside of NASA"

    How do you know? I am thinking a lot of countries out there are not so open about the goings on in their research labs. Same goes for the US military. My guess is that if NASA is already on the public record for X, quite a few organisations in the world have done Y, where Y > X.

  3. Re:limitations of material by ThreeKelvin · · Score: 2

    Castings, sure. But rocket engines are usually welded. It's not really a usefull comparison.

  4. Re:Why does 'printed' matter by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 2

    Printing a metal part can include blind voids that are difficult or impossible to do with a milling machine. And see my post above regarding 3D printing with stainless steel media.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear