Case Study: Lockheed Martin achieves rapid, cost‑effective iterative prototyping for next‑gen SPIDER space telescope with Proto3000 (MakerBot professional solutions)

Inventing the Telescope of the Future with MakerBot’s Professional Solutions

Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) was tapped by DARPA to reinvent space telescopes with the SPIDER (Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance) program, confronting the limits of traditional heavy, expensive optics. To rapidly iterate radically new, condensed interferometric optics and keep work secure and cost-effective, the ATC turned to Proto3000’s professional 3D printing solutions for in-house prototyping and field printing.

Proto3000 supplied desktop 3D printers and print-management tools that let engineers print dozens of design variants quickly — including 14 iterations of a custom tool in one day — and avoid outsourcing quotes in the thousands and eight-week lead times. The rapid prototyping workflow enabled faster testing and refinement (using materials optimized for functions like light absorption), helping the SPIDER effort pursue designs that can reduce optics size, weight, and power by 10–100× while cutting time and cost — all driven by Proto3000’s solutions.

Lockheed Martin

Mark E. Lewis

Senior Staff Communications