NASA Is Taking a 3D Printer Into Space
NASA clearly loves 3D printing as much as we do—to the extent that it's decided to take an entire 3D printer into space as early as next year.
The space agency has co-designed a custom shoe-box sized 3D printer, made specifically to work in micro-gravitational conditions. The hope is that it will make it aboard the International Space Station sometime in 2014.
Before that can happen, NASA and co-designer Made in Space will take the printer on one final test flight later this summer to observe it's ability to safely handle microgravity. While that shouldn't prove much of a hurdle—the teams have apparently been working on the technology since 2011—things can, and do, go wrong in space.
