NASA is planning to launch a massive new rocket as part of the Artemis I mission to fly around the moon. Earlier this year, we talked to engineers Nate Perkins and Doug Bradley from Aerojet-Rocketdyne about the engines for that rocket. Although the rocket is new, NASA is reusing the same RS-25 engines that once powered the Space Shuttle. (In fact, two of the engines on Artemis I actually flew on Endeavour!) But since the rocket for Artemis won’t be reusable like the Shuttle, its engines will have to be replaced for future missions. The engineers at Aerojet-Rocketdyne have gotten pretty creative coming up with efficient, cost-effective ways to build new engines…
Ever wonder if you can 3D print a rocket engine?
In this short, Nate tells us how he is using 3D printing to build the RS-25 engines more cheaply and quickly than during the past Shuttle Program. Here’s more of our conversation with Nate.
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