Astronaut Barry Wilmore asked for a ratcheting socket wrench
Astronauts on the International Space Station have used their 3-D printer to make a wrench from instructions sent up in an email.
It is the first time hardware has been “emailed” to space.
Nasa was responding to a request by ISS commander Barry Wilmore for a ratcheting socket wrench.
Previously, if astronauts requested a specific item they could have waited months for it to be flown up on one of the regular supply flights.
Mike Chen, founder of Made In Space, the company behind the 3-D printer, said: “We had overheard ISS Commander Barry Wilmore (who goes by “Butch”) mention over the radio that he needed one, so we designed one in CAD and sent it up to him faster than a rocket ever could have.”
Mr Wilmore installed the printer on the ISS on 17 November. On 25 November he used the machine to fabricate its first object, a replacement part for the printer.
Nasa says the capability will help astronauts be more self-reliant on future long duration space missions.
Mike Chen added: “The socket wrench we just manufactured is the first object we designed on the ground and sent digitally to space, on the fly.
“It also marks the end of our first experiment—a sequence of 21 prints that together make up the first tools and objects ever manufactured off the surface of the Earth.”
The other 21 objects were designed before the 3D printer was shipped to the space station in September on a SpaceX Dragon supply flight.
Analysis: David Shukman, BBC science editor
If a 3D printer can churn out something as useful as a tool in space, what else is possible?
Read more: Nasa emails spanner to space station
The Latest on: 3D Printing in Space
via Google News
The Latest on: 3D Printing in Space
- Scientists 3D-print a cube-shaped human liver tissueon June 11, 2021 at 11:52 am
3D printing technologies created gel-like molds that allowed living cells to grow into human liver tissue, which also provided it enough oxygen and nutrients to function for 30 days.
- Teams from NASA Vascular Tissue Challenge create human tissue with 3D Printingon June 11, 2021 at 3:49 am
NASA has awarded first and second place to two teams of scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The teams from the Institute landed first and second place in the NASA ...
- Scientists 3D-print human liver tissue in a lab, win top prizes in NASA challengeon June 10, 2021 at 1:17 pm
Scientists have successfully grown liver tissue capable of functioning for 30 days in the lab as part of NASA's Vascular Tissue Challenge. In 2016, NASA put forth this competition to find teams that ...
- Space Tech Innovator Agile Space Industries Acquires Metal 3D Printing Leader Tronix3Don June 10, 2021 at 5:03 am
Agile Space Industries, a leading innovator of space propulsion technologies, today announced the acquisition of metal 3D printing ...
- Relativity Space's reusable Terran R rocket can be 3D-printed in 60 dayson June 8, 2021 at 11:21 pm
D printing has come to play a significant role in modern rocket construction, with key players like Rocket Lab, NASA and SpaceX all leaning on the technology in producing their spacecraft. Startup ...
- Lost In Space Gets 3D Printing Righton June 8, 2021 at 5:00 pm
It’s about one very specific element of the show that was so well done I’m still thinking about it a month later: its use of 3D printing. In Lost in Space, the 3D printer aboard the Jupiter 2 ...
- Relativity Space raises $650 million from Fidelity and others to build 3D-printed SpaceX competitoron June 8, 2021 at 9:34 am
D-printing specialist Relativity Space completed a $650 million fundraise to build a fully reusable rocket and challenge Elon Musk's SpaceX.
- Relativity Space unveils fully reusable, 3D-printed Terran R rocketon June 8, 2021 at 8:14 am
A fully reusable, 3D-printed rocket will be launching satellites to orbit three years from now, if all goes according to plan. Today (June 8), Relativity Space revealed details of Terran R, a new ...
- Relativity Space unveils 3D-printed Terran R rocket, raises $650 millionon June 8, 2021 at 7:44 am
Relativity Space, the company that 3D prints rockets for launch from Florida, unveiled its larger Terran R vehicle and said it secured $650 million.
- Relativity Space raises $650 mln for bigger 3D-printed rocketon June 8, 2021 at 6:10 am
Venture-backed startup Relativity Space, which aims to build the world's first fleet of 3D-printed rockets, said on Tuesday it has raised $650 million from a raft of new investors including BlackRock, ...
via Bing News
