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thewayneThis is different from 3D printing. They're taking a a silicone skin - akin to a balloon - in the shape of the object to be fabricated. It's filled with resin, then exposed to UV light to make it harden. Remove the silicone skin, and you have your part.
The issue is that there are things that cannot be made on Earth because of gravity. An example given is a long steel beam because it will sag under gravity due to its weight. Build it in space and no sag, not that we have that technology now. The astronauts are building several objects in a device described as the size of a PC tower. The test objects will be returned to Earth and studied to see how well the process worked. Later experiments will probably include testing different types of resins, and even fabricating in the vacuum of space.
Interesting stuff!
https://www.popsci.com/science/iss-resin-manufacture-new-shapes/
Even though it's not 3D printing, I'm using that tag for this post as it is 3D fabricating, just not printing.
The issue is that there are things that cannot be made on Earth because of gravity. An example given is a long steel beam because it will sag under gravity due to its weight. Build it in space and no sag, not that we have that technology now. The astronauts are building several objects in a device described as the size of a PC tower. The test objects will be returned to Earth and studied to see how well the process worked. Later experiments will probably include testing different types of resins, and even fabricating in the vacuum of space.
Interesting stuff!
https://www.popsci.com/science/iss-resin-manufacture-new-shapes/
Even though it's not 3D printing, I'm using that tag for this post as it is 3D fabricating, just not printing.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-05 02:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-05 07:09 pm (UTC)Ships made of polymer resins. Amusing! Personally, I expect more manufacturing on the Moon, plus they can mine some resources there.
no subject
Date: 2023-02-13 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-02-13 07:24 am (UTC)I can't say I'm fond of it, if they can figure out how to pull asteroids then those would be better resources. The mass cost to lift out of Earth's gravity well is just too high for building large space ships, IMO. More mass requires more fuel for lift, which adds to mass, which requires more fuel... rinse, repeat. And with water being effectively uncompressible, they have to find a way to get resources from orbit.