Bloomberg Businessweek
Go To Businessweek.com
During the past 20 years, the author has watch China move from being a developing country into an industrial superpower
Money Moves, 5/24: Chocomize Co-Founder Fabian Kaempfer talks with Bloomberg’s Deirdre Bolton about the business of customizing chocolate
The president's campaign has a new rule—no cell phones allowed
In honor of remote control inventor Eugene Polley, we recognize other influential but neglected inventors who have felt the sting of stolen glory
Forget Adderall. Traders now pop chia seeds to stay focused and energized
The Italian automaker and others are adding hybrid technology to elite cars
The storied bridge that links San Francisco and Marin County changed the face of California
Schools cultivate ties with startups before they're big successes
Dave McClure's traveling venture capital show scours the world for promising startups
(page 2 of 2)
Some of those parts have been designed to be lighter. By reducing an airplane’s weight by just one kilogram, an airline can save $1,300 in fuel costs per year, according to the IBISWorld report.
The expense of carrying equipment into outer space is even higher. “It costs $10,000 just to bring one pound of equipment to space,” says Autodesk’s Martinez. Those costs include fuel and the complexities of launching a rocket, he says.
Last November, NASA said it awarded a grant to a startup called Made in Space that wants to create an additive manufacturing facility for the International Space Station. The facility would let astronauts perform station maintenance, build tools, and repair sections of the station in case of emergency.
If Apollo 13 had been equipped with a 3D printer, fixing the system that removed carbon dioxide from the spacecraft could have been much different. As depicted in Ron Howard’s Oscar-winning movie, engineers at ground control used materials they knew were on the craft to jerry-rig a solution that they shared with the astronauts. Today, that same problem could be fixed by sending a 3D design to the spacecraft. “Instead of ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ it could have been, ‘Houston, we have a problem, so now send up a design so we can print out something here to fix it,’ ” says Martinez.
Before 3D printers can be used on the space station, they need to be tested. Last July, Made in Space invited Autodesk’s Martinez to help test the printers on a NASA flight that simulates space conditions. Martinez, wearing a gray flight suit, floated in zero gravity while a printer from 3D Systems, bolted to the floor of the plane, printed a wrench. Martinez and Autodesk provided 3D design software and techniques for space-based design.
Made in Space, founded by students of Singularity University and based at NASA Ames Research Campus in Mountain View, Calif., is scheduled to do suborbital testing this year, according to a research proposal. The startup declined to comment.
3D printers may also one day be used to create buildings in outer space. “You can print a structure that goes almost to infinity because you don’t have gravity,” Martinez says. “It’s perfect for living in space.”
In August, NASA awarded a team led by Behrokh Khoshnevis $100,000 to test the concept of 3D printing structures on the moon, including landing pads, roads, shade walls, and dust barriers. The idea of using a robotic printer to create buildings is the brainchild of Khoshnevis, a professor at the University of Southern California, who originally thought of using the technology to rapidly construct homes after natural disasters like the earthquakes in his native Iran. The process, called contour crafting, uses a quick-setting, concrete-like material that forms the house layer by layer. Plumbing and wiring would be inserted as the layers are built. In the lunar project, a mixture of moon dust and other materials would be used to create walls and other structures.
Still, not everyone thinks that manufacturing in outer space will be the application that propels the 3D printing industry.
“It does indeed work, but is it a little far-fetched? Maybe,” says Wohlers, the 3D printing consultant. Instead, he’s much more enthusiastic about today’s applications. For Christmas, he bought his wife 3D-printed jewelry, an intricately shaped pendant made of steel and coated with gold.
“Typically, when parts are complex, you pay a premium,” he says. “But this was surprisingly affordable.”
King is a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco.
