Applications

NASA Deploys 3D-Printed Titanium Spring in Orbit

On February 3, as the Mercury One satellite passed over Earth, a small box released a titanium spring with a simple yet disruptive movement. This was the JPL Additive Compliant Canister (JACC), a technology demonstration developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion…

NASA 3D printed space spring
3Dnatives

On February 3, as the Mercury One satellite passed over Earth, a small box released a titanium spring with a simple yet disruptive movement. This was the JPL Additive Compliant Canister (JACC), a technology demonstration developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showcasing the potential of additive manufacturing.

JACC is a new compact spring system designed to precisely deploy antennas on future orbiters. These spacecraft circle a planet or moon for long periods of time to study it from space. NASA chose to test additive manufacturing under real operating conditions, and the results were successful.

The JACC spring is an excellent example of Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM). It uses three times fewer components than comparable structures, combining a hinge, a panel, a compression spring and two torsion springs into a single part. The spring design is inspired by communication antennas commonly used on satellites.