SpaceX Launches Supplies to ISS, Including Its First 3D Printer

A "flawless" launch early Sunday from Cape Canaveral has sent a load of supplies on its way to the International Space Station aboard a Falcon 9-lofted SpaceX Dragon capsule. Food, care packages and provisions for NASA's astronauts make up more than a third of the cargo onboard Dragon. But the spacecraft also has experiments and equipment that will eventually help scientists complete 255 research projects in total, according to NASA. In Dragon's trunk, there's an instrument dubbed RapidScat, which will be installed outside the space station to measure the speed and direction of ocean winds on Earth. Among the commercially funded experiments onboard Dragon is a materials-science test from the sports company Cobra Puma Golf designed to build a stronger golf club. Dragon is also hauling the first space-grade 3D printer, built by Made in Space, which will test whether the on-the-spot manufacturing technology is viable without gravity.

Comments

Only 255 projects?

[Whiternoise]

Someone needs to update from 8-bit mission plans!

Re:So we just gave all this money

[TWX]

In Boeing's defense, it's b-o-e-i-n-g, not 'boing'. A trampoline was never being considered.

Re:oh wow

[ArcadeMan]

The gravity helps feed the raw materials through a hopper? You think 3D printers use plastic pellets?

Have you ever seen a 3D printer in action in the last few years? They use plastic filament and can print upside-down without any problems. The fumes can probably be eliminated by using an enclosed printing space with a filtered exhaust, and the toxicity of the fumes lowered by using PLA instead of ABS.

Re:oh wow

[MightyYar]

I'd expect that from eight year olds, not adults.

Perhaps the problem is that you've lost hold of what makes 8-year-olds so delightful? There was a cynical curmudgeon about just about every technological advance throughout human history, and despite that flight is routine and inexpensive. Horseless carriages clog the roads. Skyscrapers crown cities. Nuclear reactors pump out gigawatts of electricity. Ships the size of skyscrapers ply the seas carrying stuff built by robots. We carry some significant percentage of all human knowledge in our pockets. At every step, there were doubters. You are that guy now.

If you want to manufacture stuff in space, you can't just jump right to space foundries and space smelters. Baby steps.