Additive Manufacturing Technology to Enhance Environmental Control Life Support (ECLS) Equipment Performance While Reducing Its Weight and Volume

Spacecraft planned for exploration beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) require ECLS systems to be greatly reduced in weight and volume from the current ISS platforms. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an emerging technology that enables component size and mass reduction by allowing the production of complex functional geometry and component integration. AM achieves this by melting powder metal as directed by computer solid models. Technology development underway intends to supply custom metallic powder, design machines using alternate methods for ‘growing’ deliverable products and in-situ methods to control the melting and curing of material within the machines. Design Engineers will need to learn how to create designs that take full advantage of the expanded design to fully appreciate the full capacity of AM. In 2008, aluminum impellers within the International Space Station (ISS) Rotary Water Separator were replaced with an AM titanium version of the same geometry. Discussion of knowledge gained during the development of the new ISS hardware will be used throughout this paper to illustrate the steps required to produce qualified flight hardware.