Biomaterials Out of Thin Air: In Situ, On-Demand Printing of Advanced Biocomposites: A New Materials Design and Production Technique Using 3D-Printed Arrays of Bioengineered Cells

We have completed the proof of concept described in our Phase I proposal, a two-material array of nonstructural proteins. We created an implementation of each step in our technology concept and demonstrated its critical functionality. The biological chassis and printing hardware we created as part of this work can be re-used for future work by inserting a material coding region upstream of the fluorescent tag. Overall, we showed that our technology concept is sound. The mission benefit analyses, as described in our Phase I proposal, are complete and contained in this report. These calculations show that our technology can save hundreds of kilograms of upmass for a potential planetary human habit construction mission: the mass per habitat module can be reduced by approximately one third if the biomaterials are manufactured on Earth and included in the mission upmass, and the full 240 kg per module can be saved if the materials are derived entirely from in situ resources. Mass savings between these two extremes is expected for an actual mission, depending on the level of in situ resource extraction technology. We have shown that continued advancement of this technology concept for use in a space mission environment is justified. Our survey of future development pathways proved extremely informative in light of the lessons learned from our proof of concept work and mission scenario analyses. For example, we were able for the first time to distinguish between the levels of functionality provided by production of structural proteins, other polymers such as polysaccharides, and true organic-inorganic composites such as bone and mineralized shell. This new information represents a significant advance in formulating specific applications, and key enabling technologies, for our proposed concept. We surveyed potential collaborations with other projects and synergies with enabling technologies that are developing. We have received requests for collaboration from other institutions, including labs at Stanford University and Drexel University. We have also received visits from industry, including Organovo, a tissue engineering company, and Autodesk, a major 3D and materials design software company. Finally, we have been in touch with the team behind the 2013 NIAC Phase ll 'Super Ball Bot-Structures for Planetary Landing and Exploration' and are planning to develop our biomaterial printing technology with the goal of enabling tensegrity-based rovers such as theirs to use lighter, more robust materials. A smooth transition from TRL 2 to TRL 3 assumes that the implementations of the technology concept which demonstrate critical functionality are also pathways for future development; while this is the case for most hardware or software projects, the multidisciplinary nature of our project, particularly the biological aspect of it, means that this is not always true. For example, as part of this work we showed that although there are large number of known genetic parts that correspond to non-structural materials, this is not true for sequences for structural organic proteins, let alone biominerals. These realizations allowed us to further subdivide our concept into more detailed development areas, some of which are clearly established at TRL 3, others of which were newly identified sub-technologies moved from TRL 1 to TRL 2. Similarly, although a single feasibility /benefit analysis is sufficient for advancement from TRL 2 to TRL 3, not all potential benefits to a technology concept as broad in scope as ours are apparent at TRL 2. Both our future pathways survey and our proof of concept work highlighted that the true mass savings potential of our technology concept cannot be quantified without modification of existing materials modelling tools to take into account the possibility of positional materials properties customization. Therefore, we have simultaneously both advanced one potential set of applications of our technology concept from TRL 2 to TRL 3 and also identified a previously unknown set of applications and advanced it from TRL 1 to TRL 2. Overall, we have moved the original formulation of our concept forward from TRL 2 to TRL 3, and the expanded formulation of it presented in this document has been advanced from a combination of TRL 1 and early 1RL 2 to an overall late TRL 2. We have also identified the key areas necessary for both short-term and long-term advancement, and made recommendations for specific future work in the most promising directions. With future work on a 1-2 year timeframe to continue advancement to overall TRL 3, we will be well positioned to begin work on a specific space mission technology insertion path

Synthesis and analysis of parallel Kinematic XY flexure mechanisms

Thesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, February 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-198).This thesis presents a family of XY flexure mechanisms with large ranges of motion, first-order decoupled degrees of freedom, and small parasitic error motions. Synthesis is based on an systematic and symmetric layout of constraints that are realized by means of common flexure building blocks. An analytical formulation incorporating geometric non-linearities is used in deriving the characteristics of these flexure building blocks. Of concern are issues related to qualification and quantification of undesirable motions, mobility, stiffness variation within the range of motion, determination of center of stiffness, and sensitivity to manufacturing and assembly tolerances. Based on the properties of the building blocks, the performances characteristics of the resulting XY flexure mechanisms are discussed and the influence of symmetry in reducing error motions is analytically illustrated. To verify the design theory, a 300mm x 300mm prototype stage was fabricated, assembled and tested at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Measurements using laser interferometry, autocollimation and capacitance gauges indicate levels of performance much better than the capabilities of the current state of the art of precision flexure stages. The prototype flexure stage has a 5mm x 5mm range of motion, with cross-axis errors of the order of one part in one thousand, and motion stage yaw errors of the order of a few arc seconds.by Shorya Awtar.Sc.D

A metrological scanning force microscope

In last decade, there has been a tremendous progress in scanning probe microscopies, some of which have achieved atomic resolution. However, there still exist some problems which have to be solved before the instrument can be used as a metrological measurement tool. The object of the project introduced in this thesis was to develop a scanning force microscope of metrological capability with the aim of making significant improvement in scanning force microscopy from the viewpoint of instrumentation. A capacitance based force probe has been studied theoretically and experimentally with the main concern being its dynamic properties, characterized by squeeze air film damping, which are believed to have direct effects on the fidelity of measurement. The optimization of design is investigated so as to achieve the results of both high displacement sensitivity and force sensitivity. An x-y scanning stage has been designed and built, which consists of a two axis linear flexure system of motion amplifying mode machined from a single aluminium alloy block. The stage is driven by two piezo actuators with two capacitance sensors monitoring the actual position of the platform to form a closed loop control system. The design strategy is introduced and the performances and characteristics of two commonly used types of flexure translation mechanisms, leaf spring and notch hinge spring system, are analyzed. The finite element analysis method is employed in the analysis and design of translation mechanism. Finally, a metrological scanning force microscope has been constructed, combining a constant force probe system, an x-y scanning stage and a 3D coarse positioning mechanism into a metrological system. The performance of the instrument system has been systematically evaluated and its measuring capability investigated on the. specimens of various properties and features. The results from this first prototype of the instrument demonstrated a subnanometer resolution with comparable stability and repeatability in all three axes

A high precision two dimensional stage using friction drive

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-110).by Razman Zambri.M.S

Phononics: Engineering and control of acoustic fields on a chip

Micro and nanomechanical systems play an important role in modern science and technology. They are indispensable for precision sensing, navigation and communication.\ua0 Over the past decade, the rapid advances in nano-fabrication and measurement science have enabled quantum control of mechanical devices by integrating them to optical and microwave cavities, in the growing field of quantum optomechanics. However, experiments in quantum optomechanics at room temperature still face significant challenges. Perhaps the most demanding condition to perform experiments of this nature is reducing noise level due to coupling of the device to its environment through mechanical vibrations, phonons. In this thesis, we engineer micromechanical devices that confine mechanical excitations, decoupling them from their environment. The engineered design of these resonators combines a built-in suspended phononic low pass filter with a trampoline design made of top quality SiC single crystal. Results with quality factors Q~4x10^8 show the efficiency of these resonators. This is the largest Q\ua0for a system of its kind with such a large mesoscopic mode size ~0.5 mm^2 and resonance frequency f~220\ua0kHz. The ultra-high Q\ua0mechanical resonators we developed can be used for quantum optomechanics experiments at room temperature. Similar to electrons, phonons propagate through material and are characterized by their dispersion relation. By engineering the properties of the material it is possible to confine and guide phonons through phononic channels. The importance of guided phonons relies on the fact that guided signals are the back-bone of all communication systems. The existing platforms for mechanical channels rely on the inclusion of phononic crystals for phonon confinement. However, phononic crystals base their functionality on acoustic interference, limiting its scalability. In this thesis, we designed, fabricated and characterized the basic components for a phononic circuitry platform based on highly stressed silicon nitride membranes on Si. These phononic waveguides share a similar mathematical framework with to photonic waveguides. Our phononic waveguides are single mode for a range of frequencies. In this region, the guided mode experiences low dissipation. We also show that there is a cut-off frequency at which the excitations cannot propagate, completely analogous to the photonic case. This phononic ``wires'' could in principle be used as the fundamental element for mechanics based communication networks. In the last chapter of this thesis, we propose a magnetomechanical system, where the mechanical system couples through the momentum to an electromagnetic field. By coupling the momentum to an electromagnetic field, it is possible to perform non-demolition measurement protocols that allow us to measure directly the position of the oscillator. By enhancing the coupling between the mechanics and the electromagnetic field we predict that the ground state of the two systems get entangled. We designed a system that can achieve coupling rates as large as a significant fraction of the mechanical resonance frequency. With such extremely large coupling rates, it is possible to explore the "ultra strong coupling regime"\ua0(USC). The USC has not previously been observed in mechanical systems

Selective Resistive Sintering: A Novel Additive Manufacturing Process

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the most popular 3D printing methods that uses a laser to pattern energy and selectively sinter powder particles to build 3D geometries. However, this printing method is plagued by slow printing speeds, high power consumption, difficulty to scale, and high overhead expense. In this research, a new 3D printing method is proposed to overcome these limitations of SLS. Instead of using a laser to pattern energy, this new method, termed selective resistive sintering (SRS), uses an array of microheaters to pattern heat for selectively sintering materials. Using microheaters offers significant power savings, significantly reduced overhead cost, and increased printing speed scalability. The objective of this thesis is to obtain a proof of concept of this new method. To achieve this objective, we first designed a microheater to operate at temperatures of 600⁰C, with a thermal response time of ~1 ms, and even heat distribution. A packaging device with electrical interconnects was also designed, fabricated, and assembled with necessary electrical components. Finally, a z-stage was designed to control the airgap between the printhead and the powder particles. The whole system was tested using two different scenarios. Simulations were also conducted to determine the feasibility of the printing method. We were able to successfully operate the fabricated microheater array at a power consumption of 1.1W providing significant power savings over lasers. Experimental proof of concept was unsuccessful due to the lack of precise control of the experimental conditions, but simulation results suggested that selectivity sintering nanoparticles with the microheater array was a viable process. Based on our current results that the microheater can be operated at ~1ms timescale to sinter powder particles, it is believed this new process can potentially be significantly quicker than selective laser sintering by increasing the number of microheater elements in the array. The low cost of a microheater array printhead will also make this new process affordable. This thesis presented a pioneering study on the feasibility of the proposed SRS process, which could potentially enable the development of a much more affordable and efficient alternative to SLS

Proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress

Published proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress, hosted by York University, 27-30 May 2018

NASA Tech Briefs, June 1995

Topics include: communications technology, electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, computer programs, mechanics, machinery, manufacturing/fabrication, mathematics and information sciences, life sciences, books and reports, a special section of laser Tech Briefs