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The everyday tech that could take us to the Moon

DrLucyRogers
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In the Engineering Edge Podcast "The everyday tech that could take us to the Moon" I discovered plans to 3D print structures on the moon using moon dirt. And also a wrench was one of the first items 3D printed in space. So I tried it myself ... .

In the Engineering Edge Podcast "The everyday tech that could take us to the Moon" I spoke with Matt Napoli from Made In Space. He told me about plans to 3D print using moon dust, and also that a 3D Printed Wrench was the first item to be designed specifically for a requirement on the International Space Station and then printed up there.

So I wanted to print my own wrench.

The file is available at: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/wrench-mis

Here's my print in progress:

Printing of the wrench with a 3D printer

Image shows the internal print of the wrench

close-up of the internal print of the wrench head

I really love the mechanism. And it's all printed in one go. No assembly required.

Finished 3D printed wrench along side internal construction

One thing I noted about the wrench is it only works one way - so I thought about how I'd design it to both do-up and undo things. But others have beaten me to the idea - such as NattyWard789987's Double-Ended Wrench: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:790942

example of double ended 3D printed wrench

With the wrench printed, I started to think about 3D printing with moon dust. As I didn't have any (sadly) I decided to try with concrete ...

bag of cement used instead of moon dust for 3D printing

Bucket of concrete and bag for 3D printing

The "nozzle" was a piped icing bag - I tried to adjust the nozzle ...

Lucy modified nozzle to improve printing

But ended up just removing it ...

wet concrete loaded into the bag

Wet concrete is squidgy, so it all went into the bag OK.

Lucy's first attempt at printing with cement

It's just not very easy to squeeze out of the bag. I wondered if agitation may be the answer - so I "borrowed" an electric toothbrush ...

A toothbrush used as an agitator to improve flow from the bag

And almost immediately that just resulted in a broken toothbrush. It's not designed to work with so much grit around!

Lucy's final attempt at printing with cement, resulted in broken toothbrush

I think we decided in the end, that as well cement being thixotropic, the friction involved between all the sand and grit and cement, just meant that this really wasn't a very good idea.

I hope they have better success on the Moon!

The Engineering Edge Podcast - Series 2 Episode 1

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DrLucyRogers
I am an inventor, engineer, writer and presenter. Other stuff: Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Engineering: Creativity and Communication at Brunel University London; Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and have a PhD in bubbles; Judge on BBC Robot Wars.
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