Our country has made a breakthrough in space metal additive manufacturing technology.

The Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Aerospace Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently completed a demonstration and verification of space metal additive manufacturing technology on the QiaoZhou experimental spacecraft, marking another important technological advancement in the field of space manufacturing. Compared to ground manufacturing, space metal additive manufacturing not only faces the complex mechanism problems under microgravity conditions, but also needs to solve a series of engineering challenges such as lightweighting of payloads, vibration resistance of precision devices against launch, and operational safety in orbit, making it a frontier direction in the international space manufacturing field. In this technology demonstration and verification, the research team focused on the mechanism of metal additive manufacturing under microgravity conditions, process methods, and equipment development, continuously overcoming difficulties. The space metal additive manufacturing payload was successfully initiated in a 600-kilometer orbit through ground remote control, achieving the predetermined experimental goals. This experiment indicates that China has preliminarily established the systematic verification capability of key technologies for space metal additive manufacturing. In the future, related technologies are expected to serve major scenarios such as in-orbit manufacturing and maintenance applications, manufacturing of spare parts for space facilities, and autonomous support for deep space missions.