Printing a Mars Rover

Manned missions to Mars will happen, possibly within the next decade or so. With them will come all sorts of logistics challenges, including what to do about equipment breakdowns on the red planet. If a Mars rover or other type of vehicle needs repaired, there's no low-cost, efficient way to put in a parts order.

Unless you can 3D print the parts on demand. A research team at the Oklahoma State University is developing a 3D-printed rover to test out the idea.

Undergrad engineering major Aavron Estep first suggested building a 3D-printed space shuttle as part of a class project. He petitioned the university for a budget (which he got) and also received help from professors in the aerospace and mechanical engineering departments. Eventually, the project evolved into 3D printing a remote-control vehicle for exploring Mars.

Estep now leads a 30-person team that is developing the rover and testing different types of materials.

“My goal is to determine if it would be a viable option to take printers to Mars and use them to manufacture parts for rovers that would be exposed to extremes in temperature and terrain,” Estep said.

“This could result in reduced costs at launch and more flexibility of missions on the surface of Mars,” said Dr. Joseph Conner, adjunct assistant professor in the mechnical and aerospace engineering department at OSU. “Human explorers bring unique abilities to the exploration of Mars that cannot be met by remotely operated rovers from Earth. With the ability to print custom rovers, the explorers will be able to react in real time to new and unexpected situations.”

NASA has already been using 3D-printed parts on rover prototypes, producing around 70 components on a production-grade Stratasys printer. There is also a 3D printer on the International Space Station that has successfully printed objects based on designed beamed up from Earth.

Source: Oklahoma State