NASA Just Emailed A Wrench To The International Space Station

iflScience ^ | 19 Dec 2014 | Janet Fang

[JoeFromSidney]

given the cost of lifting spare parts to orbit.

Remember, you have to pay the cost of lifting the filament for the 3D printer to orbit. The big saving is that only parts actually needed would have to be printed. No need to have spares of everything "just in case."

[Ann Archy]

Yes.....this is indeed COOL!!!

[stylecouncilor]

Ping

[X-spurt]

You guys were very informative. Ask a question in the right place and get good answers.

[GeronL]

One more big first for space travel I guess

[GeronL]

building entire ships in space, maybe not even in orbit, is probably a good idea.

[GeronL]

or at least a “replicator”

[onedoug]

“Where no man has gone before.”

[cripplecreek]

Bigger is pretty much always better in space but getting there is a real problem. Eliminate earth’s gravity well and you’ve just dumped a major fuel expenditure. Plus if you build aircraft carrier sized ships you can put larger crews on them without the need for every man to know every system.

Also there’s the advantage of making hulls feet thick if need be for shielding

[GeronL]

bump

[cripplecreek]

The Deadelus craft was envisioned for speed and was mostly fuel but would have never been able to get off the ground.

[GeronL]

yikes.... if that were built in space...

[vpintheak]

I saw them speak at Autodesk Univerty a few weeks ago. Got a pic with one of the team members. This really is amazing!

[null and void]

3-D Printer Ping!

[MrB]

Can anyone quickly explain how you can “3D print” movable parts in one piece?

[MrB]

The transporter works by scanning the object/person to the point that all necessary information is obtained to reconstruct that person at another location.

Does it then destroy the “original”?

Why can’t you reconstruct multiple copies based on the information you have?

[null and void]

By not printing the space between the parts.

We can’t get precision tight fitting movable parts, there’s going to be ‘slop’ between them.

OTOH, tighter fitting parts can be independently printed then assembled.

OTOOH, precision parts can be printed slightly over-sized, and touched up with more conventional machining, and then assembled.

[null and void]

Does it then destroy the “original”?

Good question. There was a story based on that very problem in Analog some years back.

It seems the company that developed the process sorta glossed over that point and neglected to mention that little detail.

Very expensive instant transport around the world, frequented by politicians, rockstars and captains of industry.

A copy would instantly show up in Hong Kong, London, or Sydney, and the original would be quietly "recycled".

Got kinda messy when someone finally spilled the (human)beans...

[MrB]

One of the Star Trek novels brought up the idea that the soul was not “scannable” and would thereby be destroyed the first time someone went through the transporter.

[null and void]

Hmmm, a transported obama might be an improvement...