Launch of the first 3D-printed rocket

© Mark Ollig

Wednesday, March 22, at 10:25 pm, a US aerospace company launched Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed space rocket.

The brilliantly radiant orange-red and blue flames cast by the nine first-stage engines of Terran 1 illuminated the night sky as they propelled the rocket during its ascent from Launch Complex-16 in Cape Canaveral, FL.

Terran 1 was manufactured by Relativity Space, headquartered in Long Beach, CA.

As I watched the live broadcast of the launch from the comfort of my recliner, the announcer said, “We just completed a major step in proving to the world that 3D-printed rockets are structurally viable.”

The first leg of the flight went smoothly, with the vehicle safely traveling through the region of maximum dynamic pressure, or Max-Q.

Next, a successful main engine cutoff, or MECO, and first-stage separation occurred.

However, when it was time for the second-stage engine to ignite for a five-minute burn to speed the rocket up to 17,500 mph for earth orbital insertion, the engine failed to maintain ignition.

The second-stage camera showed the engine briefly igniting with red flame, then stopping, followed by intermittent sparks discharged from the engine nozzle.

Clay Walker, the launch director from Relativity Space, reported an anomaly with the second-stage engine.

The 3D-printed rocket reached a maximum speed of 4,628 mph and could not attain earth orbit.

Terran 1 briefly entered space before falling back to earth and splashing into the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 miles east of Cape Canaveral.

“Today’s launch proved Relativity’s 3D-printed rocket technologies that will enable our next vehicle, Terran R. We successfully made it through Max-Q, the highest stress state on our printed structures. We will assess flight data and provide public updates over the coming days,” read a statement from Relatively Space.

Terran 1 rocket was designed for orbiting the earth and placing payloads in space; however, this test flight did not carry any.

The rocket is 85% 3D-printed using proprietary metal alloys and raw materials. It was built in 60 days using Stargate, the world’s largest 3D metal printer.

According to Relativity Space, their Stargate 3D-printing technology breaks the rules of regular printing by moving side-to-side while feeding multiple wires into a single print head.

The 20,458-pound, 110-foot tall, and 7.5-foot wide Terran 1 is an expandable 3D-printed rocket with two stages.

It is designed to take a 2,755-pound payload into an earth-orbit altitude of 1,200 miles.

Terran 1 was assembled using artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous manufacturing technology fabricated exclusively in the United States.

The Terran 1 3D-printed space rocket is a cutting-edge example of modern American engineering and technology using raw materials, advanced manufacturing processes, and human expertise.

The rocket has nine 3D-printed Aeon 1 engines in the first stage, with one 3D-printed Aeon Vacuum engine in the second stage.

It will be the first US-made reusable methalox-fueled rocket to run on a binary rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen oxidizer and liquid methane, suitable for reaching earth orbit and, eventually, for making trips to Mars.

The 3D-printed rocket’s first stage uses nine engines, producing 207,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff.

Relativity Space personnel are at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and Washington DC.

I contacted Riagan McMahon, a media relations representative for Relativity Space, who provided me with information and photograph permissions for today’s column.

Relativity Space is developing innovative computer programs and advanced manufacturing methods using machine learning to 3D-print larger, more complex metal objects.

They are also constructing a fully reusable 3D-printed heavy payload space vehicle, Terran R, capable of transporting 44,000 pounds of cargo into earth orbit.

Relativity Space will use their Stargate fourth-generation metal 3D printers to construct a 216-foot tall Terran R space rocket within their one-million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Long Beach, CA.

Although Terran 1 failed to reach earth orbit due to a second-stage separation issue, the launch successfully demonstrated the real-world ability of a 3D-printed rocket to go through liftoff, Max-Q, main engine cutoff, and first-stage separation.

You can watch the world’s first 3D-printed rocket liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Relativity Space’s YouTube channel from the T-minus 31 seconds and counting mark: https://bit.ly/3Tzjhc9.

Hydropower from St. Anthony Falls

© Mark Ollig

Located in Minneapolis, it is the only naturally occurring waterfall along the 2,340-mile-long Mississippi River.

In the summer of 1680, Antoine Auguelle and Father Louis Hennepin, a Belgian Roman Catholic priest and well-known explorer of North America, were canoeing down the Mississippi River, which got its name from the Ojibwe people who called it “mshi- (big) ziibi (river).”

They came upon a waterfall now known as St. Anthony Falls. The Dakota people called it “Owamni Yamni” (Three Whirlpools), and the Ojibwe people called it “Gakaabikaang” (The Falls).

Father Hennepin saw how powerful the waterfall was and named it St. Anthony Falls to honor St. Anthony of Padua, Italy.

St. Anthony, born in 1195 as Fernando Martins de Bulhões, became a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar.

In 1805, as early European settlers arrived, the US Army was surveying a site along the Mississippi River near St. Anthony Falls to build a military outpost.

The land obtained for the outpost was near Bdote, a location the Dakota called “where two waters come together.”

Construction of the military outpost began in 1819 using the heavy limestone quarried from the toss-side bedrock exposure along the Mississippi River.

The outpost was completed in 1825 and was named Fort Saint Anthony. It was later renamed Fort Snelling in honor of Col. Josiah Snelling, who had overseen its construction.

As time passed, the land surrounding St. Anthony Falls’ 60-foot waterfall drop was being purchased to build generating plants for powering the machinery used in the growing number of lumber, textile, and flour mills.

In 1849, the area we now live in was known as the Minnesota Territory. On May 11, 1858, Minnesota officially became the 32nd state of the Union.

The area surrounding St. Anthony Falls east of the river was given city status in 1860, and Minneapolis was chartered in 1867.

By 1881, Pillsbury completed construction near St. Anthony Falls of a seven-floor A-Mill building with a limestone foundation and wall exterior along the Mississippi River’s east side in Minneapolis. This mill was used for separating grain into flour.

Also, a Brush hydroelectric electric plant was installed to power Pillsbury’s machinery and electric lights.

Pillsbury’s A-Mill was reportedly the first industrial plant to use electric light bulbs.

The A-Mill’s basement contained holding water inlets, water-powered machinery, and an electrical room with a transformer vault.

In 1882, business people in Minneapolis established the Minnesota Electric Light and Electric Motive Power Company, which became the Minnesota Brush Electric Company due to a deal with Charles F. Brush, whose company had designed a new electric arc light and generator system successfully installed in Wabash, IN, in 1880.

The same year, the Minnesota Brush Electric Company constructed a power station on Upton Island and secured the water rights to harness hydropower directly from St. Anthony Falls.

On Sept. 5, 1882, the Minnesota Brush Electric Company’s Upton Island power station activated five generators, becoming the country’s first source of centralized hydroelectric power almost a month before a similar hydroelectric power plant was started in Appleton, WI.

Some say Appleton was first; however, I will use my writer’s prerogative and go with my home state.

Five Brush electric generators used the waterwheel at the Upton Island station to send electrical power through overhead wires installed along Washington Avenue in Minneapolis.

This electricity was distributed to homes, shops, businesses, and saloons.

At the time, using electric power was controversial in Minneapolis and other parts of the country because people feared the electricity traveling through the wires might catch fire.

Gas lighting was the primary source of illumination used in homes and businesses, with the Minneapolis Gas Light Company having exclusive rights to the city’s street lamps.

In February of 1883, the Minnesota Brush Electric Company installed a 257-foot tall tower mast with eight suspended electric arc lamps at the Bridge Square location in Minneapolis.

On the evening of Feb. 28, 1883, while many people watched, the electric lamps were turned on.

On May 3, 1883, the St. Paul Globe newspaper wrote, “during the night of the first of May, 1883, as a result of our observation we would report, that the electric mast lighted the territory mentioned [Bridge Square] much better than the gas lights, giving a much stronger and clearer light, and extending that light over a larger area than could be done by the gas lamps.”

By the end of 1885, 232 electric street lamps were being used in Minneapolis. This number kept increasing.

By 1924, gas street lamps were no longer used in Minneapolis.

Today, Xcel Energy operates the Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant at St. Anthony Falls, 360 feet from the original Pillsbury A-Mill building.

The Hennepin Island Hydroelectric Plant generates about 10 megawatts of power, which is distributed to homes and businesses.

(Photo "Right-to-Use" paid for by me!) 

Photo taken by Mark Ollig 

May 3, 1883, the St. Paul Globe newspaper 

‘First Electrically Lighted City’

© Mark Ollig

The age of the electric light began in 1809 when British chemist Humphry Davy invented the carbon arc lamp.

He made an electric light using carbon rods from charcoal that had been burned until it was hardened.

Davy connected the rods to copper wires. Then, he attached them to the ends of a voltaic cell battery, producing a glowing illuminance of light due to a prolonged electrical discharge called a voltaic arc.

Nearly 40 years after Davy's discovery, better batteries and carbon rods were developed and used with improved arc lamps providing improved illumination.

These earlier electric arc lamps were, for the most part, impractical for city street lighting, because they required large batteries or generators that drained quickly, making them expensive to operate. In addition, the flickering light and electrode erosion from the intense heat made them impractical.

However, all this began to change in the late 1870s.

In 1878, an American engineer named Charles F. Brush from Cleveland, OH, invented an enhanced version of the electric carbon-arc lamp. He also developed an electric generator that could produce a variable voltage, which could be controlled based on how much power was used.

On May 7, 1878, he obtained US Patent No. 203,411 for his “electric-light mechanism” or arc lamp, measuring 49-inches high by 24-inches wide by 12-inches deep.

Brush tested his electric arc lighting system and power steam generator in the town of Wabash, located in north-central Indiana. As a result, Wabash became the first city to be illuminated at night using Brush’s electric arc-light lamps.

“On Wednesday evening, the Brush electric light, by which Wabash is to be illuminated from a single point, will be publicly tested, in the presence of the city officials and a large number of invited guests. The electric light is to be placed on the summit of the dome of the courthouse, 200 feet above the business portion of the city,” reported an article in the March 29, 1880, Indianapolis News newspaper.

Four of Brush’s electric arc lamps positioned atop the steeple of the courthouse, 200 feet above the ground, were wired to two telegraph conductors connected to an electrical generator powered by a 12-horsepower steam engine located in the courthouse basement.

On the evening of Wednesday, March 31, 1880, a large crowd assembled on the streets near the Wabash courthouse to witness a historical event.

It was reported that an estimated 10,000 people were present.

The gas lantern street lights in Wabasha were turned off.

The anticipation was overwhelming. At 8 p.m., the switch was flipped, and the city of Wabash was instantly bathed in the glow of light equivalent to twelve thousand candles.

At first, the people stood silent, then audible gasps, followed by applause, which filled the air as everyone marveled at the sight before them.

It was as if night had instantly turned into day.

City council members from 19 neighboring towns and the mayors of two other cities had come to Wabash to witness this moment. They were “pleasantly surprised by the spectacle,” saying, “it was even better than anticipated.”

Charles F. Brush’s electric light exceeded expectations and demonstrated the viability of electrical lighting to the world. 

On April 2, 1880, the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper wrote of Wabash, “This city is first in the world to adopt the electric light for general illumination, and considering that the undertaking has proved successful, representatives of other towns remarked that they would adopt the same light.”

On April 10, 1880, Noblesville Independent newspaper described the light as “being soft and mellow, and not glaring and intense as one would naturally suppose.”

The same year, Charles F. Brush founded the Brush Electric Company.

In April 1881, the Brush Electric Company installed lighting in New York City covering a large area, including Broadway and Fifth Avenue, from 14th to 34th Streets, cross streets, Union Square, and Madison Square.

The lighting system utilized two electrical circuits; one focused on lighting the squares through large arc lamps, and the other powered the lamps attached to decorative poles along the city streets.

On Aug. 3, 1882, The Saint Paul Daily Globe reported the incorporation of the Saint Paul Brush Electric Light Company for the “application of electricity to purposes of illumination and motive power, and the introduction of electric light and electricity for the public or private use into any place in the county of Ramsey, in the State of Minnesota.”

In 1889, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company purchased the Brush Electric Company.

Thomson-Houston Electric Company joined forces with the Edison General Electric Company. Then, in 1892, the General Electric company took over the Edison General Electric Company, now called GE.

Charles Francis Brush was born in Euclid, OH, March 17, 1849, and passed away at 80 June 15, 1929, in Cleveland.

His electric carbon-arc lamps, installed in 1880, illuminated the city of Wabash until September 1888.

The development of electrical arc experiments resulted in the creation of various inventions, including carbon arc welders, which beginning in the late 1890s and early 1900s, saw widespread use.

Today, folks still visit Wabash to see the courthouse and its outdoor commemorative plaque titled “First Electrically Lighted City.”

Brush electric carbon-arc lamp

Minitel: commonly used in French homes

© Mark Ollig

In 1982, people in France called the Minitel online service telephone number to establish a data connection with a mainframe computer for retrieving information and services.

By the end of 1983, 120,000 Minitel data display terminals were installed in France.

The French state-owned telecommunications agency supported the Minitel network, supplying its services and data terminals.

Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones (Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone), or PTT, provided the country’s postal and telecommunication services.

PTT initially looked to reduce the high costs of printing and mailing paper phonebooks by supplying free access to an online residential and business listing telephone number and address directory database using a display terminal.

French telephone subscribers were supplied with data display terminals for free, which were officially categorized as loaned equipment and considered the property of PTT.

Initially, the Minitel online system was designed for phone-related services such as obtaining directory telephone numbers and addresses.

However, the Minitel system experienced exceptional growth and continually added additional services, including paid service offerings, which helped PTT support it.

During this time, French newspaper publishers expressed concern about the public’s use of the new technology for accessing news, sports, entertainment, and other information, along with the paid business advertisements on Minitel, which they said would seriously decrease the demand for newspapers and reduce their revenues.

In response, the French government acted to safeguard newspapers by instituting a rule stating that only registered newspapers could advertise services over Minitel.

Registering a newspaper in France was a relatively straightforward process.

After registration, many new owners would deliberately not fund the newspaper and instead financially support their online Minitel service and product ads, which generated substantial profits.

Over time, Minitel expanded its service offerings with weather reports, travel reservations, business financial information, various school and student portals, government administration services, and online shopping.

On March 27, 1986, years before the web was publicly available, the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper wrote an article on an electronic information system accessible from one’s home computer data terminal, defining it as “the business of offering information and services through computers in the home.”

The newspaper also cited the French government’s providing terminal display equipment (Minitel data terminals) free to households, where “the country’s Minitel videotex system has proved immensely popular.”

From 1990 into the 2000s, new online startup companies appeared on Minitel offering specialized services such as themed messaging boards, computer gaming, mail-order, dating services, real-time chat texting, and numerous resource databases.

As the telecommunication network and computing systems advanced, additional services were added, increasing the popularity of Minitel. It became as commonly used in French homes as the television and telephone.

Several equipment manufacturers began producing Minitel terminals with slightly altered designs and added features.

Minitel kiosk data terminals were installed in publicly accessible locations, becoming interwoven into everyday life.

In January of 1991, Tim Berners-Lee showed his version of the web to a small group of people at a physics convention in France.

As many of you know, he wrote the software for the web while working at the CERN research center in Switzerland, which is close to the French border.

During the convention, Berners-Lee talked about his new software program for sending hypertext/hyperlinked documents over the internet.

At the time, many people in France were using the Minitel online network, not the internet.

The web would not become available to the French public until 1994.

By the end of 1994, France Telecom (formerly PTT) reported 6,473,000 Minitel data terminals nationwide.

During 1998, Minitel’s user base grew to over 14 million.

However, its user base decreased as the World Wide Web gained popularity in French homes and businesses.

Meanwhile, the French government continued supporting Minitel by maintaining its network and providing services and data terminals.

By 2010, the client base of Minitel was rapidly disappearing as a growing number of its users were transitioning to the web.

On June 30, 2012, France Telecom announced the end of the Minitel service, despite having approximately 650,000 Minitel display terminals still in use.

The reason given was because of the escalating expenses related to the maintenance of the system.

As for the Minitel display terminals, they were collected, and their parts were recycled.

More than 40 years ago, Minitel revolutionized how French citizens accessed information, services, and entertainment using an interactive electronic display terminal linked with a central mainframe computer over the telephone network.

“The aim was to computerize French society and ensure France’s technological independence,” said Karin Lefevre of France Telecom about Minitel.

As a predecessor to the web, Minitel helped pave the way during the emergence of the online digital world.

Vive la France.

Minitel data terminal broken down into its components for
 recycling in Portet-Sur-Garonne, southwestern France.
(August 2012)
(right-to-use license for this photograph paid)

Before the Web, there was Minitel

© Mark Ollig

Many acknowledge the French Minitel system as the first successful large-scale telecommunications network to provide publicly accessible online services.

In 1978, as part of an experimental telephone service offering, a Minitel data terminal was assembled and tested in Cesson-Sévigné, a town in Brittany, the northwesternmost region of France.

The word “Minite” comes from the French sentence, “médium interactif par numérisation d’information téléphonique,” which translates to “interactive medium by digitization of telephone information.”

During the 1970s, videotex was developed to simplify interactive communication between users and a centralized computer database of information primarily accessible over the telephone network, allowing users to obtain two-way interactive content on a computer screen or video display terminal.

Videotex services could be accessed through a terminal adapter connected to their television sets; however, the service was seldom delivered through over-the-air broadcast television or cable systems.

In July 1980, a videotex interactive service, Minitel, began a trial run in Saint-Malo, France, where about 2,000 experimental Minitel terminals were installed and connected to a user’s telephone line. Later that year, it expanded to telephone households around Paris.

With the success of these experiments, in 1982, the French Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone agency (PTT) began offering its new service throughout France, installing Minitel data terminals at no cost to telephone subscribers, which included free access to online French telephone electronic residential and business yellow page directories and address databases.

The French telecommunications provider reasoned electronic directories were a more cost-effective option than the yearly updates of their printed counterparts.

The Minitel terminals were wired through the telephone network and connected to a mainframe computer.

The computer network used by the Minitel terminal in France is known as Télétel; the two were jointly called Minitel.

As one of the earliest interactive digital videotex networking services, the Minitel online information system was offered to telephone subscribers free of charge.

The Minitel “dumb” data terminal featured a telephone modem, a keyboard with keys resembling the size used on a TV remote, and a nine-inch monochrome display screen with a 40 by 25 character text resolution.

In the 1960s, inexpensive computer data display terminals allowed multiple users to access a corporation’s large mainframe computer. As a result, they became known as dumb terminals.

A dumb terminal is an electronic device that operates using a display screen and keyboard and does not do any actual computing or processing.

Instead, the user types text input commands via the keyboard and sees interactive data on the terminal’s display screen.

This type of terminal was designed to be linked to the mainframe computer doing the heavy number crunching and processing, displaying the computing results on a user’s terminal screen.

The Minitel user terminal did not have a BIOS  (basic input/output system) program.

Instead, it contained a ROM (read-only memory) chip with decoder instructions burned in it for keyboard and display functionality and protocols for modem communications.

The Minitel terminal used an Intel 8052 8-bit microcontroller chip with 8 KB of ROM and 256 bytes of RAM (random-access memory) and other semiconductor chips for monitor display management and modem functionality.

Initially built by Alcatel at a low cost, the Minitel user terminal connected to a mainframe computer through the wired telephone network via a V.23 modem, referred to as 1275, due to its download data speed of 1200 bps (bits per second) and upload data rate of 75 bps.

I found a diagram written in French given to the home user installing the Minitel data terminal, which I have attempted to translate into English.

“Comment installer votre Minitel.”

[How to install your Minitel.]

1. Débranchez la prise téléphonique de votre prise murale, et branchez-la sur la prise téléphonique du Minitel.

[Disconnect the telephone plug from your wall socket, and connect it to the telephone socket of the Minitel.]

2. Branchez la prise téléphonique du terminal Minitel sur la prise murale libre.

[Connect the telephone socket of the Minitel terminal to the free wall socket.]

3. Branchez la fiche sur la prise électrique 220 V.

[Connect the plug to the 220 V electrical outlet.]

The instructions then said “Branchement telephonique: en decrochant le combine, vous devez obenir la tonalite. Sinon, verifiez le bon branchement des fiches.”

[Telephone connection: by picking up the handset, you should get the dial tone. Otherwise, check the correct connection of the plugs.]

“Branchement electrique: vous mettez sous tension lecran en appuyant sur linterrupteur marchce-arret. La lettre F saffiche en haut a droite.”

[Electrical connection: you switch on the screen by pressing the on/off switch. The letter F is displayed at the top right.]

And lastly, “et voila.”

[And there you go.]

Sometimes, the French blood from my father’s mother’s side of the family pays off.

Be sure to read next week’s column as we follow the continuing story of Minitel.

Minitel data terminal from a house in Viviers-sur-Rhône, a city in the region of Ardèche in southern France. 

(right-to-use license for this photograph paid)