Orbital Matter 3D-printed the first rigid beam in the vacuum of space

A satellite built by the German startup Orbital Matter 3D-printed a half-meter long beam out of a custom plastic material, in what executives called a first for a free-flying spacecraft in orbit, and a step toward constructing large structures in space.

德国初创公司 Orbital Matter 制造的一颗卫星利用定制塑料材料 3D 打印出了一根半米长的横梁。高管们称，这是自由飞行航天器在轨道上的首次此类尝试，也是迈向在太空中建造大型结构的一步。

The company’s small satellite, Replicator 2, was launched on a SpaceX rideshare mission this summer, with four of the company’s 3D printers onboard. Each printer can create a rigid, cylindrical beam by extruding coils of resin that are cured by an ultraviolet light, which the company analogizes to cement and water.

该公司的“复制者 2 号”（Replicator 2）小型卫星于今年夏天搭乘 SpaceX 的拼车任务发射升空，卫星上搭载了四台该公司的 3D 打印机。每台打印机都能通过挤出树脂线圈并利用紫外线固化，制造出坚硬的圆柱形横梁，公司将其比作水泥和水。

This technology matters because future spacecraft will need to be larger in order to generate more electrical power and radiate more heat into the vacuum of space, particularly if they’re going to serve as orbital data centers. But they’ll still need to fit into the tight confines of the fairing on top of the rocket that carries them into orbit.

这项技术之所以重要，是因为未来的航天器需要变得更大，以便产生更多的电能并向太空真空环境辐射更多的热量，特别是当它们要作为轨道数据中心使用时。但它们仍需适应运载火箭顶部整流罩的狭窄空间。

If spacecraft are able to construct their own structures in orbit, the power and heat-dissipation challenges may get a lot easier to solve. “Replicator 2 is the first proof that we can simply build the array in space, at whatever size the mission demands,” said Jakub Stojek, CEO and co-founder of Orbital Matter.

如果航天器能够在轨道上自行构建结构，那么电力和散热挑战或许会更容易解决。Orbital Matter 的首席执行官兼联合创始人 Jakub Stojek 表示：“‘复制者 2 号’首次证明了我们可以在太空中根据任务需求，直接建造任意尺寸的阵列。”

The company is partnering with the European Space Agency and Thales Alenia, a leading European satellite builder, with which it collaborated on Replicator 2. Today’s large structures in space are origami projects — large solar arrays or telescope mirrors are folded up and then deployed on orbit. That’s a tricky engineering project, and so the idea of making and assembling those structures in space is appealing.

该公司目前正与欧洲航天局以及欧洲领先的卫星制造商泰雷兹阿莱尼亚宇航公司（Thales Alenia）合作，后者也是“复制者 2 号”的合作伙伴。目前太空中的大型结构多为“折纸工程”——大型太阳能电池阵列或望远镜镜面在发射时折叠，进入轨道后再展开。这是一个复杂的工程项目，因此在太空中制造和组装这些结构的想法极具吸引力。

NASA has funded some efforts at the idea, notably a mission with the company Redwire that 3D-printed structural beams in a vacuum chamber in 2023 but never got off the ground. Two of Orbital Matter’s printers are designed to deploy a flexible solar array, but an anomaly led one of the printers to fail. Still, the boom that was created successfully deployed the solar array, and is an important proof of concept.

美国国家航空航天局（NASA）曾资助过一些相关尝试，其中最著名的是 2023 年与 Redwire 公司合作的一项任务，该任务在真空室中 3D 打印了结构梁，但最终未能升空。Orbital Matter 的两台打印机旨在部署柔性太阳能电池阵列，但其中一台因异常而失效。尽管如此，所制造的横梁仍成功部署了太阳能电池阵列，这是一个重要的概念验证。

Previous 3D-printing efforts in microgravity were limited to the pressurized environment onboard the International Space Station. “That’s why we put so many printers on this single satellite. We preferred to learn in orbit and adapt the software as needed rather than waste years testing every possibility on the ground,” Orbital Matters CTO Robert Ihnatisin told TechCrunch.

此前在微重力环境下的 3D 打印尝试仅限于国际空间站内的加压环境。Orbital Matter 的首席技术官 Robert Ihnatisin 对 TechCrunch 表示：“这就是为什么我们在单颗卫星上放置了这么多打印机。我们宁愿在轨道上学习并根据需要调整软件，也不愿浪费数年时间在地面上测试每一种可能性。”

The boom’s length is limited by the amount of resin carried onboard the satellite, and the company’s engineers believe that 100 meter booms are feasible. For comparison, SpaceX’s Starlink V2 satellites — among the most powerful mass-produced satellites in orbit — uses solar arrays that are 20 meters long.

横梁的长度受限于卫星携带的树脂量，公司工程师认为制造 100 米长的横梁是可行的。作为对比，SpaceX 的星链 V2 卫星（轨道上最强大的量产卫星之一）所使用的太阳能电池阵列长度为 20 米。

Orbital Matter was co-founded in 2022 by Ihnatsin, who previously worked at 3D-printing company FormLabs, and Stojek, and raised a $3 million seed round. Now, Orbital Matter is working on another demonstration mission, scheduled for launch in 2028, that will test a larger version of its printer on a bigger satellite that the company hopes will deploy a solar array that can generate 5 kw of power.

Orbital Matter 由曾在 3D 打印公司 FormLabs 工作的 Ihnatsin 和 Stojek 于 2022 年共同创立，并筹集了 300 万美元的种子轮资金。目前，Orbital Matter 正在筹备另一项演示任务，计划于 2028 年发射。该任务将在更大的卫星上测试更大版本的打印机，公司希望届时能部署一个可产生 5 千瓦电力的太阳能电池阵列。

That will be a “stepping stone” toward larger deployments of 100+ KW per wing by 2030. The company is also collaborating with satellite builders that are considering incorporating its PADS (printer-assisted deployment system) into their spacecraft to extend solar panels, antennas, or other components.

这将是迈向 2030 年实现单翼 100 千瓦以上更大规模部署的“垫脚石”。该公司还正在与卫星制造商合作，这些制造商正考虑将其 PADS（打印机辅助部署系统）集成到航天器中，以扩展太阳能电池板、天线或其他组件。