A 3-D printed rocket part blazes to life during a hot-fire test. (Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Olive)
by David Weaver
On Tuesday, President Obama announced that Chicago will be the site of a public-private partnership Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute.. Led by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, the agency will support the new Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute with tools including prize challenges, university research grants and expert advice and knowledge sharing.
The idea behind the new Chicago institute is that manufacturing is being transformed by digital design, which replaces the drawing table with the capacity to work and create in a virtual environment. It has the potential for producing a faster and cheaper next-generation aircraft engine, or drastically reducing the amount of scrap material associated with small manufacturing runs and speeding the design process among multiple suppliers.
Advanced manufacturing is a matter of fundamental importance to the economic strength and national security of the U.S. and the future of NASA. Advanced manufacturing capabilities are essential for turning research discoveries, inventions, and new ideas into better or novel products. Advanced manufacturing is a catalyst for our nation’s ability to innovate. Innovation, in turn, drives U.S. economic growth and growth of U.S. productivity. There are many interrelated elements of an innovation economy, entrepreneurs, workers, tax policies, to name a few, but without manufacturing, the economic power and dynamism of innovation fades.
NASA has long known that investments in research and development enable new missions, stimulate the economy, contribute to the nation’s global competitiveness and inspire the nation’s next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.
NASA already is a founding partner in the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office located within the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense-led America Makes National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio, which focuses on additive manufacturing, or “3-D printing,” to improve manufacturing across the U.S. For NASA, 3-D printing technology can produce rapid engineering prototypes and fabricate complex designs in a more versatile way than other manufacturing technologies, making the agency able to build, test, and fly its next-generation aerospace systems more quickly and cost-effectively.
NASA’s also a partner in the Department of Energy-led Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Raleigh, N.C., targeting energy-efficient electronics — critical to future deep space mission hardware as well as the energy saving benefits to be found here on our home planet. NASA also will offer technical expertise to a new Detroit-area headquartered Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation Institute, which focuses on lightweight and modern metals manufacturing.
These new institutes serve as regional hubs of manufacturing excellence. Regional collaborations bring together industry, universities and community colleges, federal agencies and states to accelerate innovation by investing in industrially relevant manufacturing technologies with broad applications. They also support education and training of an advanced manufacturing workforce needed for our future, on Earth and in space.
For NASA, these cutting-edge manufacturing institutes can produce rapid computer designs and engineering prototypes and fabricate complex designs in a more versatile way than previous manufacturing technologies, making the agency able to build, test, and fly its next-generation aerospace systems more quickly and cost-effectively.
As America regains its leadership in high-tech manufacturing and innovation, creating new jobs and services here at home, NASA gains new suppliers and resources for the advanced space technologies needed to enable our future missions. Through partnerships like these, we’ll help out-innovate the world while continuing to explore the high frontier.
To learn more about the exciting work being done by the National Network for Manufacturing Initiative, visit:
The author is NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Technology. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is innovating, developing, testing, and flying hardware for use in future missions. NASA’s technology investments provide cutting-edge solutions for our nation’s future.
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