Prior to receiving airworthiness certification, extensive testing is required during the development of rotary
wing aircraft drive systems. Many of these tests are conducted to demonstrate the drive system’s ability to operate at extreme conditions, i.e. — beyond that called for in the normal to maximum power operating range.
NASA is now 3-D-printing spare parts up at the ISS (International Space Station). And in zero-gravity environments. And some of these parts are small gears and actuators, for starters. Every indication is that the list of power transmission-type parts to be converted will soon grow.
In January of this year we at Gear Technology got hip to the fact-in un-hip, belated fashion - that we needed a Blog Site and someone to do the blogging. Lucky for us, we already had that someone right here - in plain sight. That someone was Charles D. Schultz, P.E.
In the June issue of our sister publication -- Power Transmission Engineering -- the Power Play feature (Destination Mars! -- pg. 64) was devoted to NASA’s Mars-oriented LDSD (Low Density Supersonic Decelerator) project...
Much has happened since we last reported on the malfunctioning solar array rotary joint (SARJ) attached to the International Space Station. Space shuttle Endeavour dropped in for a two-week visit in November during which repairs were made and invaluable data collected.
For more than 10 months, NASA ground engineers and International Space Station (ISS) astronauts have been
struggling with a perplexing malfunction of one of the station’s two solar array rotary joints (SARJ).