3D Systems and Planetary Resources Announce Investment and Collaboration, SpaceRef Business
“3D Systems and Planetary Resources, Inc. today announced that 3D Systems has joined Planetary Resources’ core group of investors and will be a collaborative partner in assisting Planetary Resources to develop and manufacture components of its ARKYD Series of spacecraft using its advanced 3D printing and digital manufacturing solutions.”
“We are excited to work very closely with Planetary Resources’ engineering team to use advanced 3D printing and manufacturing technologies to increase functionality while decreasing the cost of their ARKYD spacecraft,” said Avi Reichental, Chief Executive Officer, 3D Systems. “In success, we will create the smartphone of spacecraft and transform what has been an old-style, labor-intensive process, into something very scalable and affordable that will democratize access to space, the data collected from space and off-Earth resources for scientists and the public. We are delighted to join the Planetary Resources team.”
Marc’s note: This is a good news for Planetary Resources. They get an undisclosed investment and collaboration with an industry leader.

Marc Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor, podcaster and publisher who has worked in space media for more than 25 years. In 1999 he co-founded SpaceRef with Keith Cowing. The new media company grew into a network that included NASA Watch and The Astrobiology Web. After selling SpaceRef, he joined Multiverse Media, which later merged with SpaceNews. There he helped steer the combined company toward more multimedia, a subscription paywall and intelligence products, and pushed for a mobile app. He is also the founder of SpaceQ Media, Canada’s space news and market intelligence publication.

Marc started his first Internet content business in 1992 and hasn’t looked back. When he’s not working, he loves exploring Canada and the world and expanding his photography skills.

3 replies on “Planetary Resources Gets Investment from 3D Printing Heavyweight”

  1. This may be more a “we’ll pay you partly in stock instead of cash” deal. For example, say PR wants to buy a machine from 3DS that lists for $100k. They work a deal with 3DS to pay list price but as part of the deal 3DS “invests” $50k into PR and gets stock in exchange. So, in essence, PR is paying $50k in cash and the rest in stock to 3DS. If 3DS has 60% gross margins, 3DS still really gets some net cash out of the deal, plus the equity.

    This is just speculation, but deals where a supplier is also an investor often work something like this. While PR gets some benefit out of the arrangement, it’s not necessarily as impressive as a pure cash-for-equity investment because the investor might be getting some net benefit out of the deal even if the stock is never worth anything.

    1. Sounds logical to me. I’d like to see what else is in the contract between them. There’s a lot of room for you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

      This brings up a new question: since PR is going to be working off Earth, do terrestrial laws and regulatory requirements apply to things like supply chain monopolies and captive markets? And 3DS is going to have their equipment operating in space, but not in a spacecraft and not in a government owned/operated facility. Who’s regulatory standards must they comply with? Corresponding changes in the insurance industry have to be worked out as well.

      Seems to me that there’s a lot of evolution that’s going to be required for commercial facilities (as opposed to spacecraft) to operate in space. I don’t think it’s too soon for companies, industries and governments to be working these things out. If they wait too long, it’ll hold up progress later and potentially put some of the power in the hands of the wrong people.

  2. 3D printing sounds like a GREAT way to go for building stuff like spacecraft components which are often hand-built to some degree and very low volume.

Comments are closed.