Arm Structured Printer

Design a rocket that could be built in place inside one of the four bays of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, which is 525 ft (160 m) tall. Utilize additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) where possible, considering which materials might be able to be used and which ones may have to be brought in already manufactured.

The idea is to implement the technology used by MX3D (The robotic arm) to make a structure for a rocket inside one of the bays of the VAB.

This will be a supporting inner structure on which smooth metal plates will be attached on the outside and on the inside will have connectors to attach the fuel tanks or other attachments. The structure is made out of metal and is strong enough to hold the outer plates and the inner attachments. (Already being used by MX3D to create bridges and structures that are extremely strong.)

You might think that you can use the "3D print Arms" to print the whole thing but the problem is that the print won't be smooth enough and will give too much air resistance and this causes inefficiencies. This is why we are going to use metal plates on the outside this will help with the aerodynamics. And to make the structure efficient we will be using the Autodesk Dreamcatcher aka Generative Design, this will make the structure different depending on what type of rocket, the stress levels, the weight it needs to hold, etc.

The arms could be attached to the rocket and so decrease the space needed to create it (like they did with the bridges) but if we do this we’ll be creating rockets that need to be able to hold these arms and again cause inefficiencies. So we are planning to attach the arms to a circle shaped structure above the rocket.

We will be replicating the structure used by delta printers: There will be 4 tubes attached to the roof of the building. These tubes will hold the beams that hold the circle on which the arms are attached (upside down so that the circle can reach the roof and you won’t obstruct the print.) The beams will be attached to the tubes with “elevators” so that the beams (and circle) can be moved up and down. The circle attached to the beams will have a different diameters depending on which bay you will use and what the size of the rocket will be, my numbers are for the Saturn V in the High Bays: The Circle diameter will be calculated depending on the maximum and minimum radius of the rocket. But the difference between the maximum and minimum diameter of the rocket can’t be more than 22 ft in diameter because of the technology we have at this moment, the arm can only reach 11 ft. But looking at the Saturn V rocket, the maximum diameter is 33 ft and the minimum is 21,7 ft so the rocket could be printed completely till the top of the nose if needed with a circle diameter of 22 ft and the current technology. We are assuming the rockets will remain cylinder shaped. The height of the rocket can be as small or as tall as you want it to be (with a certain limit, being 456 ft the height of the door) because the circle can reach the ground (plus the overhead height of the arms) and the top of the roof/456 ft.

We can add multiple arms to the circle to speed up the printing process I looked at project Escher by Autodesk for this. The arms will work simultaneously.

We can also implement the same technology and construction on mars or the moon to make rockets for return flights. Depending on what kind of materials there are available.

Delta printer: http://www.tripodmaker.com/page/blackedition#specs

Autodesk Dreamcatcher: https://autodeskresearch.com/projects/dreamcatcher

Autodesk Escher: http://projectescher.com

Measurements: http://kscpartnerships.ksc.nasa.gov/Partnering-Opp...

MX3D Arms: http://mx3d.com/