NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission will send a spacecraft to the red planet to retrieve rock samples and carry them to earth — but the spacecraft will have to crash land once it gets back home. Carrying a parachute or other landing system would add too much weight and complexity. Therefore, the rock samples coming from Mars need to be cushioned against the violent arrival, and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have turned to additive manufacturing to create the strong, lightweight titanium lattice structures that will deliver this protection. In this bonus episode, The Cool Parts Show visits JPL to learn about not just the design and 3D printing of lattices optimized for this role, but also the postprocessing involved in making these lattice structures as light as possible for the sake of the interplanetary trip. Also in this episode: See the enhanced drop tower JPL uses to simulate the a crash landing upon returning from Mars.

This episode of The Cool Parts Show brought to you by Carpenter Additive. https://www.carpenteradditive.com/

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

Mars Sample Return mission
https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/

NASA’s EXCITE mission using AI-designed 3D printed brackets
https://www.additivemanufacturing.med...

3D printed components on the Mars Perseverance Rover
https://www.additivemanufacturing.med...

Very different application of 3D printed lattices: protecting cohosts’ heads
https://www.additivemanufacturing.med...

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