TangoBox: Next Generation Infrastructure for In-Space Production on Commercial Space Stations

Space Tango is proposing a new multi-use R&D and manufacturing infrastructure to vastly increase the throughput of the ISS and / or future commercial platforms such as commercial ISS modules and commercial LEO destinations for manufacturing purposes. This capability will benefit commercial operators and users in LEO as well as NASA for its forecast of needs for services in LEO after ISS is retired. The TangoBox (Figure 1) is an evolution of Space Tango capabilities that re-imagines the glovebox environment, optimized for automated space manufacturing and research. Primary motivations of this design are to: - Reduce the engineering needed for each experiment to be run on orbit - Provide a better customer experience to the end user - More efficient use of up / down mass - Emulate terrestrial best practices and workflows pairing automation with microgravity specific designs for fluid handling and environmental control - Increase the pace of R&D by increasing the number of iterations between launches - Reduce costs and increase efficiency The proposed work aligns with Topic Title: Closing Capability Gaps to Accelerate In-Space Production Applications in LEO of the 2023 NASA SBIR Ignite announcement. Specifically, the TangoBox will become part of the R&D and manufacturing infrastructure services on commercial space stations in LEO. Space Tango is working to build a portfolio of in-space manufacturing use cases that will require TangoBox capabilities. NASA, the broader space station community, and Space Tango users and customers of the future will all require this infrastructure for their own needs. Services made available will include cell culture, layer-by-layer deposition, microscopy, cytometry, DNA analysis, centrifugation, and biofabrication (including bioprinting).