NASA selects Elementum 3D for Lunar AM project

NASA’s Lunar Additive Manufacturing project – launched through its HUNCH program – challenges high school students to design and present innovative AM designs to solve real-world product development in diverse areas. As it stands, the competitor list is down to six high schools, and Elementum 3D has just recently been selected as the program’s official AM material and laser powder bed fusion technology supplier.

NASA relies on innovation in many areas such as software, hardware, biomedical science, culinary, and even tarp stakes. A significant problem when operating on the moon is the dust rising while walking on its surface. The remedy may be securing tarps with stakes designed by high school students, with the tarps acting as sidewalks to reduce the dust the astronauts get into.

The lunar AM project objective is to design, 3D print, and test a stake that is anchored in lunar regolith by astronauts wearing a pressurized space suit. The stake designs are judged on the amount of material used to 3D print a high-strength, lightweight aluminum stake – using the least amount of support material. The stake will then be tested on its ability to be drilled into a lunar regolith simulant, and how much force is needed to pull the 6-inch-long stakes out of the mortar mix used to simulate the moon’s surface.

The project is now in its final stage, and the judges have narrowed the designs to the following six high schools: Chatfield 1, Clear Creek 1, Chatfield 2, Jackson Hole, Erie, and Clear Creek 2.

The Lunar Additive Manufacturing project is just one of many that fall under the HUNCH program mission, which is to empower and inspire high school students through a project-based learning program. By assisting in launching students’ careers through participation in the HUNCH program, Elementum 3D is continuing its initiative to support the advancement of young minds.