UCSD students test fire 3D-printed metal rocket engine
http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-rocket-seds/29306/

Like something out of a Robert Heinlein novel, students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have built a metal rocket engine using a technique previously confined to NASA. Earlier this month, the UCSD chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) at the Jacobs School of Engineering conducted a hot fire test for a 3D-printed metal rocket engine at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry launch site in California’s Mojave Desert. This is the first such test of a printed liquid-fueled, metal rocket engine by any university in the world and the first designed and printed outside of NASA.

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3D printing in metal?

Now that’s an interesting development.

party_pants said:

3D printing in metal? Now that’s an interesting development.

I heard about that. The one I saw worked by laser-sintering of a loose metal powder.

I very much like the idea of 3-D printing of a rocket engine, worth looking into further to see what material – size – accuracy – complexity – engine temperature they have in mind.