Last week, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft departed the International Space Station, having delivered a batch of new experiments and cargo. Among them was the Refabricator, a new machine that will not only make objects on demand things for the astronauts, it will recycle them too.
While 3-D printers are becoming commonplace, nowhere are their benefits more obvious than in the confines of space. Cargo resupply missions to the ISS are routine, but as human spaceflight pushes farther out into deep space, there will be more pressure for self-sufficiency, as resupply missions become more difficult and expensive. That means not only manufacturing supplies, but also conserving and reusing the supplies on hand.
The Refabricator is in part a 3-D printer, allowing astronauts to make tools to their own specifications immediately, without waiting months for items to be flown from Earth. But there’s been a 3-D printer on the ISS since 2014. ...
