With this, manufacturing is now possible in space

Sep 20, 2014 07:10 GMT  ·  By

A couple of days ago, we gave you a heads up as to what will happen today. Or, rather, has finally happened: NASA has sent a 3D printer into outer space for the first time. With this, we can now manufacture things in orbit.

Well, that's in a nutshell. The situation is a bit more complicated that it would seem at first glance. Still, it is a good first step in the direction of full, self-sustaining orbital manufacturing facilities.

A SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft was used to carry the 3D printer, which was developed by Made in Space as part of NASA's Zero-G Project.

How it all went down

NASA asked Made in Space to create the 3D printer all the way back in 2010. You might think it strange that it took so long for the request to be met, but it really isn't.

This wasn't just a case of putting together a filament printer and hoping for the best. Microgravity, or total lack of gravity, can be a fickle thing.

And cobweb like plastic filament strings are a common byproduct of 3D prints. It's horrible enough to deal with them here on Earth, since they end up everywhere, but zero gravity will only make it worse.

Admittedly, that problem was easily enough circumvented via a closed-chamber design. It still left the issue of precision and mechanical integrity when outside of the earth;'s gravitational pull, though.

Fortunately, Made in Space pulled it off, and NASA was even able to run successful tests in simulated zero gravity, by means of parabolic flights (a modified Boeing 727 was used).

The one thing that didn't need much messing with was the weight of the printer, which is quite high but ultimately irrelevant since there is no gravity in space. At least until we develop artificial gravity.

Finally, a few minutes after 2 AM last night, a SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo ship was sent into the upper atmosphere and beyond, on a docking course with the International Space Station (ISS for short).

The elephant in the room

There is one big problem with the new printer though, so to speak: it uses a filament extruding method not too dissimilar from that of normal FDM printers. As we said above, it makes things from plastic.

Plastic is produced from organic sources, which aren't available in space. That means we'll have to keep sending shuttles with raw materials up there, if we want anything done. Not very conductive to the whole “saving money and time” idea that 3D printing in space is all about.

Fortunately, this is only a first step towards orbital manufacturing. Since there already are sandstone, mineral and metal 3D printing techniques on the market, Made in Space only needs to adapt those next.

Who knows, by the time we can move around the Solar System, mining asteroids and whatnot, we'll have perfected the first construction bay on the ISS.