San Diego State professor emeritus of mechanical engineering Randall German spoke on a panel hosted by NASA on Monday, March 14.
The panel addressed research and technology aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft, which will be launching in April for a commercial resupply mission.
Dr. German discussed his research of sintering, which is the process of heating powdered material, causing the particles to bond into a solid mass without liquefaction. He has supplied seven pre-packaged cartridges to be sintered in space in order to study the impact the absence of gravity has on the scientific process.
“The lesson that is really surprising to most people who get close to this type of science is the great difficulty,” German said. “Since there are humans in the station, everything needs to be safe. If one cartridge breaks when heated or vibrated, what it releases could be toxic. Toxicity needs to be zero.”
The results of this study could lead to improved manufacturing techniques, and has the potential to pave the way for performance of in-space fabrication and repair. It will help scientists to better understand the specifics behind building habitats in space.
“We have had to do all sorts of health reviews that have taken a tremendous amount of time, and we’ve had some failures which have caused us to do some re-design,” German said. “It’s a very difficult set of experiments, but we’re finally there.”
Sintering is a global industry worth about $70 billion. The process of sintering is used in many everyday items such as cutting tools and automobile components.
