CAD Services: 3D Printing Will Happen in Space
Everyone knows that 3D printing is the technology of the moment all over the planet. But who would have thought its popularity will soon spread beyond the planet?
NASA is planning to put a 3D printer in space. Not on its own, of course, but along with the astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS). The logic is that the astronauts would be able to make spare parts on demand. This has two advantages:
- The ISS does not have to stock a large number of spare parts. There is are consequent savings in weight, space and inventory cost
- There will be far less likelihood of parts needing to be sent up from earth on costly space delivery vehicle missions.
Had 3D printing technology existed in the 1970s, the Apollo 13 story would have played out differently. When that oxygen tank burst, there would have been no need to cannibalize other parts of the spacecraft to save the crew and ship. Jim Lovell could have merely made a replacement part, fitted it in place and successfully completed the mission as intended.
The 3D printer that goes up will not be what you see at your local printer store. It has to work in zero gravity (else the material used for deposition would float around), has to withstand up to 9 G’s of gravitational force and not shatter into a million pieces during the unholy vibrations at liftoff. The printer obviously has to be made to order.
NASA has awarded the printer development contract to the Made in Space company. According to the Company the equipment will be about the size of a microwave (imagine if the device could print a cheeseburger and warm it up as well… )
As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, a 3D printer needs to be fed a digital file telling it what to do (similar to the printer you use to print documents on). That file contains a virtual 3D object and is coded in a specific format such as STL. Creating that file is a skilled job, and guess who does it? We do!
All you have to do is describe the object you want to create. Start by messaging us with the form at left or use the email form on our 3D modeling page. We have created thousands of 3D objects and look forward to designing yours. We look forward to hearing from you!
Wow, this is great. I first saw the article at blog.3dprintingmodel.com but apparently it is posted here too. Can’t wait for 3D printing to really take off! I’m still working on a bastardized 3D chocolate printer from an old CNC machine. 😉 =D, it is a work in progress.