NASA to send 3D printer to space

[CityFarmer]

The 3D printing is maturing, and put into serious usage...

It is a technology under close watch...

NASA to send 3D printer to space

HOUSTON - NASA is to send a 3D printer to the International Space Station to allow astronauts to create their own spare parts and tools, paving the way for technology to print engines and even entire spacecraft in orbit.

Engineers at the US space agency are testing a new 3D printer that can manufacture plastic objects in low gravity.

It will allow astronauts to make everything from replacement buckles and toilet pipes to repairing damaged parts of the space station and spacesuits.

The technology, which is already being compared to the replicator in the science fiction series Star Trek, is due to be sent to the International Space Station in June 2014, the Daily Telegraph reported.

http://www.todayonline.com/daily-focus/n...nter-space

[specuvestor]

Small spare parts yes. Entire spacecraft? Crazy. They think this is Doraemon ah?

[CityFarmer]

Small spare parts yes. Entire spacecraft? Crazy. They think this is Doraemon ah?

Well, in theory, it should work. The lacking is a working process to do it in the space station and remains economically feasible.

[brattzz]

If the printed products has similar properties and strength equal to steel, it's DO-ABLE!!

[d.o.g.]

If the printed products has similar properties and strength equal to steel, it's DO-ABLE!!

You can do much better than steel depending on the raw materials you use. Space is one of the areas where logistics trumps everything, if you forget (or lose) a screwdriver or bolt, you can't just get another one from the corner store. So 3-D printing is a godsend.

Other places where 3-D printing is already viable include desert/arctic/military installations which present the same logistics challenges. Also there are some parts which are easy to do with 3-D printing but very hard/impossible with conventional methods e.g. nested parts. There are many examples of fantastic jade/ivory carvings of spheres within spheres within spheres - obviously taking years to carve with no margin for error. Apparently some aerospace parts are like that. Such things are trivial with 3-D printing, but extremely difficult and costly with conventional methods, so the production parts, not just the prototypes, are already being made with 3-D printing.

[specuvestor]

Small spare parts yes. Entire spacecraft? Crazy. They think this is Doraemon ah?

Well, in theory, it should work. The lacking is a working process to do it in the space station and remains economically feasible.

Printing parts make sense. But try printing a workable iPhone, not to mention spacecraft Material Science would be made irrelevant if you can print everything with the same dough with different chemical, electrical, magnetic properties

[guru]

How will this impact companies dealing with plastic moulding industry? This seems like a game-changer.

Once there is mass adoption, and costs come down, some existing industries will be seriously threatened.

[CityFarmer]

Small spare parts yes. Entire spacecraft? Crazy. They think this is Doraemon ah?

Well, in theory, it should work. The lacking is a working process to do it in the space station and remains economically feasible.

Printing parts make sense. But try printing a workable iPhone, not to mention spacecraft Material Science would be made irrelevant if you can print everything with the same dough with different chemical, electrical, magnetic properties

A workable iPhone is assembled from parts. If parts can be printed, then a product is print-able, isn't it?

It doesn't mean it can be done now, but in theory, it should be possible.

[d.o.g.]

How will this impact companies dealing with plastic moulding industry? This seems like a game-changer.

Once there is mass adoption, and costs come down, some existing industries will be seriously threatened.

3-D printing was first made commercially available in 1986, and the general public could buy machines in 1988. That's 27 (25) years now. It still hasn't taken over the world, because "traditional" manufacturing methods still have important advantages like speed. There's a history of 3-D printing here:

http://www.3ders.org/3d-printing/3d-prin...story.html

For items with simple shapes, 3-D printing incurs a massive speed penalty. Plastic injection molding production cycles are measured in seconds per unit, 3-D printing cycles are measured in hours. No way 3-D printing can compete in making things like combs, toothbrushes, computer key boards, plastic smartphone casings etc. That's why, when reporters use 3-D printers to make plastic figurines and proclaim "this sucks" when it takes all night to make one 3-inch tall figure, they are missing the point. For this type of product, plastic injection molding wins hands-down.

But 3-D printing can make sense when quantities are limited e.g. one-off prototypes, replacements for out-of-production parts etc. In such cases, the fixed cost and time of making the metal mould is too high to be offset by the lower per-unit cost and lower per-unit production time. For such applications 3-D printing has already been adopted, in fact it has been in widespread use in prototyping over 10 years now. There are even listed companies such as 3-D Systems, Stratasys and ExOne.

The New York Times has a sensible article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/techno...-like.html

I personally found it quite amusing that the local Singapore papers made a big hoo-hah about a local startup raising money to build an "affordable" 3-D printer, when you can already buy one for under US$400. By the time that local startup comes to market in 1-2 years' time, their machine may well be obsolete and too expensive. FWIW some guy recently built a 3-D printer from Lego parts, so these things are very far from rocket science these days. As for the PM himself talking about 3-D printing - his speechwriters are clearly way behind the curve on the technology.

As usual, YMMV.

[KopiKat]

Small spare parts yes. Entire spacecraft? Crazy. They think this is Doraemon ah?

Well, in theory, it should work. The lacking is a working process to do it in the space station and remains economically feasible.

Printing parts make sense. But try printing a workable iPhone, not to mention spacecraft Material Science would be made irrelevant if you can print everything with the same dough with different chemical, electrical, magnetic properties

A workable iPhone is assembled from parts. If parts can be printed, then a product is print-able, isn't it?

It doesn't mean it can be done now, but in theory, it should be possible.

It'd be impossible to 'print' the electronics parts ie. semiconductors, display,... using a 3D printer. What can be possible would be those parts that can be made / replaced with strong 'printing paper' ie. plastics (?) and which can be easily assembled. I suppose if electronics are required, they'd have to be assembled, tested and QC'ed on earth 1st.