Cryogenic Tanks for Space Refueling: The Cool Parts Show All Access
NASA's Paul Gradl describes an important application of AM beyond the spacecraft itself: refueling the spacecraft. Directed energy deposition offers the most practical way to produce aluminum tanks to keep fuel supercool.
“We will need gas stations in space,” says Paul Gradl of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Episode #71 of The Cool Parts Show focuses on the spacecraft thrust chamber assembly produced via additive manufacturing. But another AM application we found at Marshall relates to tanks that will keep fuel sufficiently cool for storage in off-earth refueling areas, such as on the moon.
The cryogenic tank seen in this video was produced via directed energy deposition by RPM Innovations using aluminum alloy from Elementum 3D. Making the tank in one piece as seen here allows it to be produced in two weeks, whereas making it conventionally — through forming and welding of the tank, and machining and brazing of the cooling channels — would likely require more than a year, Gradl says.
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