14 DAY TRIAL // Prolonged periods of time spent in zero gravity tend to play havoc with peoples' ability to walk when coming back to Earth, due to a combination of muscle atrophy and loss of motor control. Wanting to offset that, Yvonne Cagle has designed a special new buckle.
Yvonne Cagle is an astronaut and flight surgeon. She may not currently be serving on a space mission, but she has been on enough to be intimately familiar with the aftereffects of zero-gravity living.
Astronauts have to relearn how to walk after coming back planetside, and even then they could develop heart conditions, assuming they don't suffer any difficulties while in orbit.
Fortunately, cases of such issues are pretty rare. Still, Cagle hasn't stopped being a doctor, and when 3D printing provided her with the unique opportunity to design her own health aid, she took it.
The 3D printed belt buckle
The Zero-G 3D printer from Made in Space, currently in use by the International Space Station, has so far produced a tiny faceplate that identified the printer maker, as well as its own extruder plate.
Filament isn't in unlimited supply, and one can't just conjure up more. And being outside the Earth's gravity pull (mostly) means that you're far away from all normal resupply lines as well.
Because of that, no one up there, or even down on the planet, is about to start printing things for the fun of it.
The new buckle that Yvonne Cagle designed (in Autodesk Fusion 360) is intended to be used with a compression strap. When tightened, the strap prevents muscle loss (some of it anyway) and should maintain heart health despite being subjected to zero gravity. The concept is akin to that of elastic wraps that support injured joints.
Cagle collaborated with Made in Space and Singularity University, the for-profit, high-tech school located in Silicon Valley. Large muscle groups will benefit the most, like the upper arm or legs.
Unfortunately, while the buckle has been already printed here on Earth, it hasn't been printed in space yet. NASA hasn't set a specific date for it, and it won't be in 2014 either. Instead, the print will be carried out in 2015, possibly in early January, to commemorate the start of the new year.
The buckle will be made of three different pieces. Two for the clasp and one to make it possible to adjust the tightness of the band.
Made in Space preparing new 3D printer
The Zero-G was the first Made in Space 3D printer to make it off the planet, the first 3D printer in the world to achieve that actually. But it won't be the last.
By the time the buckle can be 3D printed up there, Made in Space should have a second-generation printer ready to launch off-world.
