Made In Space Inc., Mountain View, Calif., has partnered with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to launch the first 3D printer to space. The customized 3D printer will be the first device to manufacture parts away from planet Earth. The 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment will validate the capability of additive manufacturing in zero-gravity.
The Made In Space and NASA team envisions a future where space missions can be virtually self-sufficient and manufacture most of what they need in space. This includes such things as consumables, common tools, and replacements for lost or broken parts.
Made In Space received a Small Business Innovation Research award as part of the 3D Printing In Zero-G Technology Demonstration program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. Its goal was to develop the first 3D printer capable of working in microgravity. The printer is built specifically to handle the environmental challenges of space, and uses extrusion additive manufacturing, which builds objects layer by layer out of polymers and other materials.
The primary goal of the experiment is to serve as a technology demonstration to verify the data collected from multiple parabolic flights that 3D printed parts in microgravity are equal to earth-based parts. The 3D printer successfully completed all flight certification and acceptance testing in April 2014 at Marshall.
