Mitsubishi develps a 3D printer for working in space - in vacuum!

[thewayne]

It eliminates the need for a laser, using a resin that hardens under direct UV light, so it can print objects larger than the faring of the rocket that places it in orbit! So you can print an antenna dish for a Cubesat that's only 100mm x 100mm x 300mm that's much larger than the satellite!

Very interesting possibilities here.

https://www.mitsubishielectric.com/news/2022/0517.html

Comments

[suchasnack]

This is so freaking cool! A part of me wants to leave a coherent comment, the rest of is just screaming "SCIENCE" inside and bouncing around like a toddler XD

[thewayne]

Science is so incredibly awesome.  I remember years ago, seeing a video where a guy is holding one of the heat shield ceramic tiles from the space shuttle and he's holding a torch to it and it's glowing read hot.  He takes the torch away, and the next second picks it up with his bare hand.  Science is awesome!

[disneydream06]

Off to space we go. lol...
Hugs, Jon

[silveradept]

Oh, cool, they figured out how to do it outside of the controlled printing box. (UV resin is a known technology for 3D printing, but being able to do it without the support structure around it, that's very cool.)

[thewayne]

And being able to do it....

IN SPACE!

is also pretty darn cool!