NASA Tests Feasibility of 3D Printing on the Moon and Other Planets

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NASA Tests Feasibility of 3D Printing on the Moon and Other Planets

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 17, 2014 @09:40AM from the in-space-nobody-can-hear-you-print dept.

ErnieKey writes A major application of 3d printing that could revolutionize space travel would be using 3d printers to create structures on non-terrestrial bodies like the moon, other planets, and even asteroids. Researchers from NASA's Kennedy Space Center have been working to develop solutions to materials issues, and recently presented initial findings on the potential for using in-situ materials like basalt for 3D printing. Their innovative method is based on only using in-situ supplies, and not materials that need to be brought into space.

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Gay Wigger Association of DICE* by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 09:42 · Score: -1
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WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 09:47 · Score: -1

WTF is "in-situ"? Is that even in english because that is the first time in my life that I see that.
1. Re:WTF by parkinglot777 · 2014-12-17 09:49 · Score: 1
  
  WTF is "in-situ"? Is that even in english because that is the first time in my life that I see that.
  Here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I... Please read that...
2. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 09:57 · Score: -1
  
  Latin is a dead language, please understand that.
  How fucking hard is it to just write "on site" instead? People keep bitching that Slashdot is an American, english website and then samzenpus uses Latin just to sound fucking educated? Get off your high horse.
3. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 10:04 · Score: 0
  
  How fucking hard is it to just write "on site" instead?
  You are an illiterate moron. I have seen, and written, "in situ" thousands of times. It is a standard English term.
  "On site" does not mean the same as "in situ". If I bring a box of tools to a worksite, they are now "on site" but they are not "in situ", since they didn't originate there.
4. Re:WTF by bws111 · 2014-12-17 10:06 · Score: 1
  
  Please understand that in-situ is an english phrase that came from latin. It does not mean the same as on-site. On-site just means the stuff is there, it could have been put there by an earlier mission. In-situ means the stuff is in the place it was originally found.
5. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 10:10 · Score: -1
  
  If you assume everyone on the planet learned english as their first language, you're the moron.
6. Re: WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 10:12 · Score: -1
  
  Shut the fuck up Hitler.
7. Re:WTF by Livius · 2014-12-17 10:12 · Score: 1
  
  In fairness, the "in-situ" materials are the components inside the 3D printer, not materials in the immediate vicinity.
8. Re:WTF by MightyMartian · 2014-12-17 10:19 · Score: 1
  
  The only thing dead here is the mass between your ears.
  The saddest thing about morons is that that they think their moronic nature is a matter of pride, and not shame.
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
9. Re:WTF by Russ1642 · 2014-12-17 10:23 · Score: 1
  
  So you must be around four years old then.
10. Re:WTF by aBaldrich · 2014-12-17 10:25 · Score: 2
  
  Lingua latina fuit, longe tempore, lingua scientiae. Isaacus Newtonus, Iohannes Keplerus, Galilaeus Galilaei, Franciscus Bacon, Leonhardus Eulerus, inter alios, opera omnia latina scripserunt. Ideo, non estote amantes ignorantiae, nec superbi in ignorantia vestra.
  
  --
  In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
11. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 10:25 · Score: 0
  
  Knowledge is not intelligence. If I started to reply to you in Esperanto and you didn't understand a word, would that mean you're a fucking moron?
12. Re:WTF by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2014-12-17 10:29 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Latin is a dead language, please understand that.
  People keep repeating this line ad-nauseum, spouting 'language is dead', etcetera. They might have bona-fide complaints, but maybe they're an alias for a different annoyance, perhaps that they didn't pay enough attention in school circa 9th grade to maintain a simple conversation on a site known to attract tech-lovers. Ergo this problem will not be solved quickly.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
13. Re:WTF by jabuzz · 2014-12-17 10:32 · Score: 2
  
  This is an English language website. The term in-situ is something that I would expect at least an educated person from an English language country to understand perfectly. There is a large amount of the English language a none native speaker might not understand, that is no reason not to use it on an English language website. If there is something you don't understand Google if heavens sake.
  I am quite sure if I demanded that the French used simple French on their websites so I could understand it they would go positively apoplectic.
14. Re:WTF by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-12-17 10:46 · Score: 1
  
  The most hilarious thing about this is that many people arguing that "Latin is a dead language" actually don't know what "dead language" means. Judging from what you seem to be suggesting, you don't know that either.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
15. Re:WTF by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-12-17 11:00 · Score: 1
  
  Latin is also a lingua franca, a common language to use among people who speak different languages. All intellectuals know some Latin but because there are no native speakers, nobody's living language is being favored.
16. Re:WTF by 50000BTU_barbecue · 2014-12-17 14:22 · Score: 1
  
  Get a better life.
  
  --
  Mostly random stuff.
17. Re:WTF by ClickOnThis · 2014-12-17 16:07 · Score: 1
  
  Well played. Somebody mod this guy up.
  
  --
  If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
18. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 21:27 · Score: 0
  
  I am a non-native English speaker. "in-situ" and "on site" just aren't fucking interchangeable. Anyone complaining about the use of such terms must be lacking in education.
19. Re:WTF by tonique · 2014-12-18 02:36 · Score: 1
  
  I studied chemistry in a non-English-speaking country and in situ was a known term. It means that a specific compound needed in a reaction is made in the same vessel as the synthesis continues, not separated and transferred to another flask. Example: reacting sodium with ethanol to produce sodium ethoxide followed by transesterification.
  On site would in deed mean that something was prepared in the same laboratory or even the same fume cupboard.
20. Re:WTF by tehcyder · 2014-12-18 03:28 · Score: 1
  
  I have never understood how someone can go to the (small) effort of posting to an internet forum about how they don't know something, when in the same amount of time they could have googled it.
  If we were all communicating by hand-written letters two hundred years ago, you would still loook it up in a dictionary first.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
21. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-18 06:43 · Score: 0
  
  ad nauseAM. C'mon guys, get your English case endings right!
22. Re:WTF by MightyMartian · 2014-12-18 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  Except that in-situ is an English word. It's origins are Latin, but then again, so is a vast amount of the English vocabulary.
  We have these things called dictionaries. Rather than demonstrating intense stupidity, inform yourself first.
  Oh right, this is /., where ignorance is a matter of pride.
  
  --
  The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
23. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-18 21:59 · Score: 0
  
  Latin or not, it is a technical term commonly used by NASA known to anybody who saw one or two NASA videos on the frac king YouTube.
  If you want to make such a big deal of using latin words (or German, French, Saxxon, Norwegian or whatever), start with not using shortcuts such as etc, ie, am, pm, all the latin words commonly used in English and end with not using English at all.
The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by mmell · 2014-12-17 09:48 · Score: 1, Interesting

Fluids (the stuff generally coming out of the print heads of most 3-D printers) just don't behave the same at <.001g as they do at 1 g.
1. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by ArcadeMan · 2014-12-17 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  The solution is easy: print in 3D using liquid magnets.
  With an Arduino, in the Cloud, synergetically, with Bennett.
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
2. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Immerman · 2014-12-17 10:05 · Score: 2
  
  As I recall the toy-grade plastic-extruding 3D printer recently sent to the ISS is working just fine, despite the 0g. As was expected - the things were tested in all orientations, including upside down, here on Earth. If it works fine even when gravity is working against you, it will probably continue to work fine when gravity is "ignoring" you.
  Basically the bonding forces between layers are strong enough that, even when the top layer is still liquid, that gravity doesn't play much of a roll. It's not like we're talking about ornamental water fountains here - the plastic is liquified, forced through an extrusion nozzle, and travels *maybe* 1mm before contacting a cool surface and rapidly solidifying again.
  And then there's things like the arc-welding robot arm, which can act as a 3D printer capable of drawing free-standing 3D lines connected to a surface at only one end. I seriously doubt it would have any problems in freefall either.
  
  --
  --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
3. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by maestroX · 2014-12-17 10:07 · Score: 1
  
  Biggest problem is getting someone to haul the equipment over to the moon.
  Just watched Interstellar and let me tell you, *spoiler*
4. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Moof123 · 2014-12-17 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  Moon has about 1/6 g, not 0.001g.
5. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by ArcadeMan · 2014-12-17 10:26 · Score: 1
  
  I'm pretty sure the moon is heavier than 1/6 of a gram.
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
6. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by rtb61 · 2014-12-17 10:27 · Score: 1
  
  It is all about the mass ration of the equipment versus the product to be produced. So for a permanent moon base the first and major extruded element will be the soon to be buried (buried as being the quickest way to provide the most protection from micro impacts) structure itself and the more mechanical elements of the moon base would be taken from dismantled landing craft. Of course how do they get back if they take apart their landing craft, easy, the next one that they do not pull apart. So save lots of mass in the trip from earth to the moon by making the landing craft dismantable and become the initial parts of the base, still a lot of mass but a whole lot less than taking the whole structure from the earth to the moon.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
7. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 10:57 · Score: 0
  
  Actually, the ISS already has a 3D printer, but nice attempt to sound smart in front of a bunch of other idiots trying to pretend to be "nerds" because it's so hip and cool.
8. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 11:04 · Score: 0
  
  The solution is easy: print in 3D using liquid magnets.
  With an Arduino, in the Cloud, synergetically, with Bennett.
  Someone just won the Internet.
9. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Garfong · 2014-12-17 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  g is also a unit of acceleration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
10. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by catchblue22 · 2014-12-17 15:11 · Score: 1
  
  g is also a unit of acceleration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
  I prefer to say that g is gravitational field strength in N/kg. It is equal to the acceleration of a free falling object, but I think it is clearer to think of it as the number of newtons of gravitational force one gets per kg in the field. Of course, 1N/kg is the same as 1m/s^2.
  
  --
  This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
11. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 16:02 · Score: 0
  
  Reprap can print upside down. That's -1.0g. What's the problem with 0g?
12. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 18:13 · Score: 0
  
  I'm pretty sure most of the posers have long ago left for Digg or reddit or whatever else is the soup of the day. It's not immediately obvious how 3d printers would work in zero gravity, GP's point was worth addressing.
13. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by OolimPhon · 2014-12-17 23:00 · Score: 1
  
  Biggest problem is getting someone to haul the equipment over to the moon.
  Of course not! We'll just print the printer when we get there!
  Oh, wait...
14. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by serviscope_minor · 2014-12-18 01:12 · Score: 1
  
  What on earth do you mean by "toy grade"?
  If you mean FDM, then it would be quite hilarious to refer to a Stratasys for example as "toy grade". Either that or you can afford much better toys than me.
  The thing that actually went up there also does not look like "toy grade" either:
  http://www.nasa.gov/content/in...
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
15. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by tehcyder · 2014-12-18 03:40 · Score: 1
  
  The solution is easy: print in 3D using liquid magnets.
  With an Arduino, in the Cloud, synergetically, with Bennett.
  Delivered disruptively via Uber, of course.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
16. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Immerman · 2014-12-18 03:42 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, it's an expensive toy - far more than *I* would be willing to pay certainly - but it squirts plastic out of a nozzle to make weak, crude plastic "toys". Arguably useful, especially when you're $4k/pound away from the nearest general store, but not remotely in the same league as the professional-grade printers working in laser-cured resin, sintered titanium, high temperature ceramics, etc.
  
  --
  --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
17. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by serviscope_minor · 2014-12-18 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, it's an expensive toy - far more than *I* would be willing to pay certainly - but it squirts plastic out of a nozzle to make weak, crude plastic "toys". Arguably useful, especially when you're $4k/pound away from the nearest general store, but not remotely in the same league as the professional-grade printers working in laser-cured resin, sintered titanium, high temperature ceramics, etc.
  Stratasys are the single largest 3D printer company and they sell pretty mich exclusively to businesses. I.e. they're selling them to people who do stuff for money, and only that. That makes them "professional grade" by definition.
  The other ones you mention are much slower to run and much more expensive to boot. Not to mention that the resolution/strength is overkill for many applications. Part of being a professional is knowing how to make the right trade-offs and select the correct tool for the job.
  You also missed out the starch powder printers which are even weaker than the FDM ones. Another professional tool due to the expense.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
18. Re:The biggest problem is fluid dynamics. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-18 10:38 · Score: 0
  
  The fact he's unaware the ISS already has a 3D printer in less gravity than the moon was proof enough. In fact it's also proof enough simply that you failed to recognize that yourself.
Step 1, Get There; I volunteer by LifesABeach · 2014-12-17 09:49 · Score: 1

Granted these technologies can be accomplished on the various places described; but. It is still very hard to do it if one does not go there.
Marketing by kylef · 2014-12-17 10:11 · Score: 1

Printing on the surface of the moon would make for a really cool billboard.
1. Re:Marketing by itzly · 2014-12-17 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  Even if you used the entire surface of the moon it would be really small. Anyway, with all these crazy ideas, it looks like NASA has lost track of its focus here.
2. Re:Marketing by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-18 02:13 · Score: 0
  
  Whoosh. They're not talking about printing onto the surface of the moon. They're talking about printing using the moon's materials and gravity. It was a joke.
April Fool's already? by Moof123 · 2014-12-17 10:12 · Score: 1

If you RTF, the pictures are of 3D printed poop piles. Either it is joke, or a commentary about the utility of 3D printing. Either way, it pretty much sums up my opinion about most 3D printing hype.
1. Re:April Fool's already? by wonkey_monkey · 2014-12-17 10:25 · Score: 1
  
  Either it is joke, or a commentary about the utility of 3D printing.
  Or it says something about what you think a poop pile looks like, in which case you may need to see a doctor.
  
  --
  systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
2. Re:April Fool's already? by Applehu+Akbar · 2014-12-17 11:05 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, today's plethora of space-related articles is a test I suggested several weeks ago: let's design an experiment which will determine whether Space Nutter Troll is a bot or a person. If we can induce a plausible psychotic episode by the end of today, we will have proven it to be a person.
3. Re:April Fool's already? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-17 17:55 · Score: 0
  
  Wow, delusional much?
  1) There is no "plethora", it's just your average week of slashdot stories. Way to misuse a word, doofus.
  2) You have no influence on what stories are posted here, let alone a "plethora" of them, you nitwit.
  3) There is no "we" either, it's just you and the voices in your head. Has Neil Armstrong spoken to you yet?
  4) No one, even the voices in your head, really cares about your suggestions.
  5) You and your voices are a bunch of childish daydreamers discussing fantasies that will never happen.
4. Re:April Fool's already? by TWX · 2014-12-18 03:07 · Score: 1
  
  If you RTF, the pictures are of 3D printed poop piles. Either it is joke, or a commentary about the utility of 3D printing. Either way, it pretty much sums up my opinion about most 3D printing hype.
  At least it's not a giant CHA...
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
RTFA by jklovanc · 2014-12-17 10:20 · Score: 1

Because of these issues, researchers at NASA KSC have been studying a very intuitive method of 3D printing on the surfaces of other planets. Their method is very similar to that of large industrial selective laser sintering 3D printers, which lay down layers of material that are then sintered (melted and hardened) by heat lasers.
They are not talking about using liquids at all
so the Robots will grow Robots by turkeydance · 2014-12-17 10:22 · Score: 1

from their non-terrestrial garden?
Enough of this! by wonkey_monkey · 2014-12-17 10:24 · Score: 1

Enough of this 3D printing malarkey. When are they going to find out if ants can be trained to sort tiny screws in space?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Stupid headline by XB-70 · 2014-12-18 03:04 · Score: 1

What a stupid headline. To my knowledge, there are no 3D printers physically on the moon or other planets for NASA to test with.

--
*** Don't be dull.***
Answer a question, mmell by Anonymous Coward · 2014-12-19 04:09 · Score: 0

What's it like getting your ass kicked by apk + downmodding to hide it 20x http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... ?