Date: Oct 04, 2013 Author: press release Source: Company Data (
click here to go to the source)
Annapolis, MD -- October 4, 2013 -- NASA reported late in late September that the Mars Curiosity Rover discovered water in the soil of Mars. A Technology Assessment and Transfer (TA&T) component was critical to these findings.
Ceramic heater bodies developed, designed, and manufactured by TA&T are a central part of the Sample Analysis on Mars (SAM) instrument suite on board the Curiosity Rover. Manufactured via Ceramic Stereolithography, a form of 3D printing and additive manufacturing, the oven heater bodies can withstand the extreme temperatures, in excess of 1,500⁰F, required for heating soil samples. TA&T was selected by NASA to fabricate these parts due to the high expense of traditional manufacturing techniques.
Due to the oven heaters success in the SAM Suite, TA&T is currently developing enhanced and optimized designs for NASA. These next generation components will improve upon the capabilities already seen on the Curiosity Rover.
Ceramic Stereolithography, or CSL, is a rapid prototyping technique that builds complex shapes layer-by-layer. This enables previously unmachinable designs to be made. The CSL process has applications beyond space exploration, including those which have consumer and industrial applications. The process requires no tooling and therefore allows rapid prototyping of fully-functional ceramic parts. TA&T has been involved in the development of rocket engine fuel injectors, heat exchangers for cooling electronics in hybrid electric vehicles, ceramic molds for turbine engine blades, and electrosurgical medical device tips, among other development projects.
Photographs of the TA&T produced ceramic heater housing for the Mars Science Laboratory can be found in the Ceramic Stereolithography gallery.
