Powder Removal In Microgravity Environment (PRIME)
During my second summer at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, I worked on a novel project to design a device capable of removing residual powder from additively manufactured parts in microgravity. In powder bed fusion, metal parts are built layer by layer by selectively melting thin layers of powder; once printing is complete, the part must be extracted from a bed of unfused powder, with excess powder clinging to its surfaces. On Earth, removing this powder is straightforward, but in microgravity, loose particles could float through the spacecraft, posing a serious hazard to the sensitive systems aboard the ISS. Developing a safe, efficient cleaning device is a critical step toward enabling metal 3D printing in space and advancing in-situ manufacturing capabilities. Such a device could also have applications beyond the ISS—such as cleaning lunar regolith off equipment and habitats during future Moon missions.
I was given creative control over this project—titled Powder Removal in Microgravity Environment (PRIME)—and designed a functional prototype. The system combined pressurized fluid nozzles with ultrasonic transducers to dislodge residual powder from printed parts, all within a rotating drum designed to operate in microgravity. In use, the part was secured inside the inner drum, which was then filled with cleaning fluid delivered through the pressurized sprays. Once filled, the ultrasonic transducers activated, generating high-frequency vibrations to loosen particles. After cleaning, solenoid valves opened to drain the fluid, allowing the part to be removed clean and powder-free. The rotating drum design ensured effective fluid management in microgravity, where conventional drainage methods would fail.
