NASA designed a faceplate for its 3D printer which the agency installed on the International Space Station on the 17th of November. The faceplate is totally composed of plastic material.
Numerous private firms are keenly working on the development of new technologies, methods, applications for this printer. The chief aim of scientists is to provide 3D printing facility in the International Space Station. It will allow experts to construct certain tools outside the Earth.
NASA released its first ZeroG 3D Printer in Space in the month of September. The launch is considered as a defining moment in the history of Space travel. The government agency carried the printer on a Space X Dragon Cargo Craft
Niki Werkeiser, the project manager of 3D printer stated that the creation of printer can lead to an on-demand machine shop in the International Space Station. The scientists have merely a single place for the trial of this technology i.e. The Space Station.
Moreover, Werkeiser informed that the printer is a critical device for traveler which signifies that it can reproduce its own parts. It will definitely offer a great help in the long missions to planets such as asteroid or Mars.
Currently, the space Agency is carrying out a test in order to make certain the practicality of replicating parts in space. Additionally, NASA is analyzing the influence of zero gravity environment on 3D printing.
Aaron Kemmer, head of Made in Space called the entire procedure of installation and operation a “transformative moment in space development”.
On the other hand, NASA intends to call back the first 3D printer object back to Earth on 2015. Afterwards, the scientists of NASA will carefully examine the difference between production in space and production on Earth.
