Launch $1-billion-worth of spare parts to the International
Space Station, and you can keep Earth's orbital outpost going
for another decade. Send up some 3D-printing devices, and you
invest in the ability to build everything on demand in space:
space-station parts, astronaut tools, satellites, even
spacecraft. A first step toward space factories may come from
NASA's recent selection of a U.S. startup's proposal to build a
3D printer for the space station. Such printing technology could
build any number of objects, layer by layer, based on designs
uploaded from mission control. Astronauts would only need
"feedstock" material, such as plastic or metal, to make new
tools or spare parts on the fly. "When a tool breaks, at the
very worst the space-station crew calls Houston and says, 'Send
us a CAD (computer-aided design) file of that tool,' and they'll
be able to 3D-print it," said Jason Dunn, chief technology
officer and cofounder of Made in Space, Inc. "Ideally, one day
they'll be able to design it themselves.