With the base materials for most parts decided upon, I’ve finally gone ahead and sent out some orders for EVA foam, aluminium, etc. I’ve also been since the first week of the project gradually printing some of the finer parts that I doubt I could really make any other way. This includes the 20cm engine bells (which came out really nicely off of a Prusa mk3), an arm control panel, and some detailing for the fuel pumps in the life support pack.

The Engine Bells
Each engine unit has a main “prograde” engine and a slightly smaller retrograde engine. The combination of all 4 engine units is meant to provide very fast changes in velocity and angular momentum for the wearer. The retro engines are mainly used for fast response dodging, when there is not enough time to swivel the main engine unit around, as well as to counterbalance the main engines.
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Print time: ~15h for large bell, ~10h for small bell.
Material: PLA

The Turbopumps
The gas flow and pressure in the engines’ combustion chambers are controlled by a pair of turbopumps and a set of valves. The turbopumps themselves are mounted on the suit’s backpack.
Each turbopump takes in fuel and oxydiser and feeds 2 engine units (a total of 4 engines). This means the suit will have a lot of fuel lines and control wires running everywhere.

Print time ~9h for both rings.

Ball Joints
I’ve also given a go to printing some structural parts: The engine units will be mounted on ball joints. Here’s one printed in ABS.

The cool thing about ABS is that you can use acetone vapour to smooth it, obtaining a glossy smooth finish on the joint! The process does make the ABS very soft, so I am currently waiting for the ball joint to dry off.

That’s it for now!