3-D Printing in and for Space
NASA and 3D printing Sky-rocketing, Economist
“Aerospace was one of the first industries to take up three-dimensional (3D) printing. This is because 3D printers are good at making things which are complex and lightweight. … So far, 3D-printed aerospace parts tend to be used in non-critical areas, such as brackets or ducts. Now NASA has shown that the technology is capable of a far more demanding role: making rocket engines.”
– NASA Tests Limits of 3-D Printing with Powerful Rocket Engine Check, earlier post
– 3D Printer Headed to the International Space Station Passes Crucial Milestone, earlier post
– 3D Printing, NASA Hackspace
They aren’t the only ones. Boeing and Airbus have been exploring 3D printing parts, the Chinese are printing bulkheads for one of their new fighters, and SpaceX was 3D printing titanium bits last year –
http://www.3ders.org/articl…
http://www.evergreenmuseum….
I sincerely apologize if this is considered ‘hijacking’ the thread, but I was hoping for a discussion on NASA and 3D printing. This article was recently picked up by Google News:
http://www.geek.com/science…
This is kind of ‘out there’, but it shows that there really are bright long-range thinkers at NASA still. Something like this could render moot a lot of other long-range technologies, such as the infamous ‘space elevator’. (Why haul tonnage from earth to orbit when you can construct it in space to begin with?) It would also be a good explanation for NASA’s new preoccupation with small asteroids (those big 3D printers need a source of material, after all)
I remember 15 years ago when Bill Shepherd wanted to bring a Unimat with a computer drive in order to be able to manufacture parts on the ISS beginning on the first mission. Now if NASA had led that effort it would have been developing new technology.
3D printing on ISS is a great idea, but not a NASA invention-just NASA using technology that is available.