First 3D Print made in space

[MG_MLS]

Thought you all would like this!
Now the question is- what is that build plate made from and does it work on earth? Interesting design with the springs on it so they can slide it in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BAy2fiBElU&sns=em

[Tim]

Neat! I talked to Niki Werkheiser at the World Maker Faire; NASA had a booth there, and she was happy because the printer had just launched the day before the Maker Faire. She told me that they had tested the technology on airplanes in zero-G parapolic curves, but with about 30 seconds or less of zero-G at a time, there's not a whole lot you can print.

I have toyed with the idea of making a "lathe printer", replacing the linear Y axis with a rotation parallel to the X axis, and transforming all the cartesian coordinates into cylindrical coordinates. By keeping up a continuous rotation, you average out the effects of gravity, and it's a heck of a lot less expensive than launching your 3D printer into space. One day, maybe, if I have lots of spare time to tinker around with it. . .

[jimc]

i thought the same thing about the build plate. it looks like some kind of hard rubber. probably some kind of top secret nasa material.

[helifrek]

They could have just got an m2!

[insta]

i thought the same thing about the build plate. it looks like some kind of hard rubber. probably some kind of top secret nasa material.

NASA is pretty good about releasing their designs. It's kind of what they do.

[rpollack]

Made in Space asked us for an M2 so we sent an early M2 loaner. Never heard much after that and did not receive the machine back either. For a long time they had a list of companies that contributed to the project, last time I looked that list was gone.

[MG_MLS]

Well that's just down right wrong.

[rpollack]

i am not trying to make an issue of it. just a quick synopsis of our involvement.

[Tim]

If you've ever worked for NASA (I have, indirectly), you'll understand that anything that goes up into space is built to military specifications or better. There's almost zero chance that a commercial printer would be sent up. "Made in Space" is no doubt going for that niche market which mostly involves writing lots of grant proposals to NASA, DARPA, etc. I expect that they wanted to study known-good (sorry, "known-great"!) designs such as the M2 just to figure out what they needed to build. Go to the "www.madeinspace.us" website and look at the thing they designed. You could probably drop it from a 10-story building and it would still work. It has gone through radiation testing and shake-table testing (although 3D printers are sort of like shake tables, themselves), and is probably the most expensive 3D printer ever built.