17-year-old Alabama engineering prodigy designs tool for International Space Station

Robert Hillan’s Multi-Purpose Precision Maintenance Tool (Photo: NASA)

ENTERPRISE, Ala. — Enterprise High School student Robert Hillan has wanted to be an astronaut since he went to Space Camp as an 8-year-old. He’ll have to wait a while longer for his chance to go into space, but in the mean time he’ll be sending one of his inventions ahead of himself.

Hillan was recently named the winner of the “Future Engineers 3-D Printing in Space Tool Challenge,” a national contest that asked students to create a 3-D model of a tool that astronauts could put to use aboard the International Space Station.

“If an astronaut tool breaks, future space pioneers won’t be able to go to the local hardware store to purchase a replacement, but with 3-D printing they will be able to create their own replacement or even create tools we’ve never seen before,” said Niki Werkheiser, NASA’s In-Space Manufacturing Project Manager at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Robert Hillan shows off his Multi-Purpose Precision Maintenance Tool (Photo: Facebook)

Hillan designed what he has dubbed the “Multi-Purpose Precision Maintenance Tool,” or MPMT. He created a digital model, then used his school’s 3-D printer to bring it to life.

And that is exactly what NASA astronauts aboard the Space Station will soon do as well. Hillan will travel to NASA’s Payload Operations Center in Huntsville to watch live as astronauts aboard the Space Station print his tool as they orbit the Earth at roughly 17,150 miles per hour.

So what exactly does the tool do? Here’s Hillan’s explanation:

The Multi-Purpose Precision Maintenance Tool has a number of important tools which allow an astronaut to complete tasks with comfort and ease. The different sized drives at the top allows the user to attach sockets. In the center are wrenches of varying sizes, allowing fewer wrenches to be carried to the job site. On the left is a precision measuring tool along with wire gauges and a single edged wire stripper. In the center is an outline for Velcro to be applied allowing an easy storage around the station. A circular hole in the bottom center allows for a clip to be used as well. On the right, and ergonomic grip is built into the tool with ridges for better grasp, lastly a pry bar is built into the ergonomic grip for ease of access.

Hillan says after talking with some astronauts and NASA engineers, he plans to tweak his design before it’s final version is printed.

“The thing I most enjoyed was I actually had an opportunity to make something that can be used constantly by NASA and by the astronauts on the station,” he told his local paper. “Not many people get to say that they have a design that’s being used on the station.”

(h/t Dothan Eagle)