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More than two tons of new supplies arrived at the International Space Station this week via SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, including 20 mice, an instrument to measure ocean winds, and a microwave-size 3-D printer. This last device—a collaboration between NASA and California-based startup Made in Space—will allow astronauts to print objects that can replace broken or lost parts of space station equipment. The printer will also allow astronauts to conduct experiments in orbit that could enhance the qualities of materials we use every day here on Earth.
Having a 3-D printer aboard will greatly reduce the time and cost currently devoted to resupplying the ISS. Astronauts usually have to wait as long as six months to receive supplies, according to Mike Snyder, lead engineer and head of R&D for Made In Space, which was founded in 2010 to help solve this logistical problem. Now, with the new 3-D printer, a mounting bracket or a piece of silverware can be made in 45 minutes to an hour and a half.
Before it could go into space, Made in Space’s printer had to pass a series of tests. Without gravity to hold materials down, 3-D printing in space can be difficult: the object or materials might float away before the desired object is fully formed. So NASA ran the printer through its paces on parabolic airplane flights that create a temporary weightless environment. It also needs to withstand the stressful forces that accompany the launch from Earth, so engineers subjected the printer to an intense vibrating table that, according to Snyder, “shook it to death.”
To make three-dimensional objects, Made In Space’s printer builds up layers of lightweight ABS plastic—the same material used to make Lego bricks—a process called additive manufacturing. A second printer, slated to join the first one on the ISS in 2015, will be able to utilize stronger materials, according to Snyder.
Niki Werkheiser, the manager of NASA’s “3-D Printing in Zero-G” project at Marshall Space Flight Center, says the objects these printers make will be slightly different than their equivalents down on Earth. “The wrench you might print will be shorter, squatter and fatter than what you might find in the store, but it will do its job,” she said at a live televised conference Thursday.
Having a 3-D printer to make parts on demand could help get astronauts out of some sticky situations. After the malfunction aboard Apollo 13, astronauts had to jury rig a way to rid the air around them of carbon dioxide, because the parts from the command module didn’t fit in the system in the lunar module where they were taking shelter. Had they been able to print out correctly shaped parts, it would have reduced the risk to the astronauts considerably (though it would have made a less exciting movie).
Aside from being helpful in an emergency, the ISS’s new 3-D printer may be available for commercial use for companies that want manufacturing ability in space. Microsatellite companies may soon be able to contract with Made In Space to have components printed and assembled aboard the ISS, according to The Verge. And what we learn from the printer’s performance in space may, down the line, help improve the quality of many kinds of consumer products. “Think about it this way: It’s not about making a golf club,” Duane Ratliff, Chief Operating Officer of CASIS, the manager of the ISS National Laboratory, said in the teleconference. “It’s about making better materials.”
While the 3-D printer has been thoroughly tested, Snyder says there will always be a little uncertainty about how the printer will perform, since it’s never been used in space before. “It’s a learning process,” Snyder says, “We want to learn as much as we can and it’s exciting to see what we haven’t thought of.”
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