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NASA 'Emails' a Socket Wrench To the ISS
HughPickens.com writes: "Sarah LeTrent reports at CNN that NASA just emailed the design of a socket wrench to astronauts so that they could print it out in the orbit. The ratcheting socket wrench was the first "uplink tool" printed in space, according to Grant Lowery, marketing and communications manager for Made In Space, which built the printer in partnership with NASA. The tool was designed on the ground, emailed to the space station and then manufactured where it took four hours to print out the finished product. The space agency hopes to one day use the technology to make parts for broken equipment in space and long-term missions would benefit greatly from onboard manufacturing capabilities. "I remember when the tip broke off a tool during a mission," recalls NASA astronaut TJ Creamer, who flew aboard the space station during Expedition 22/23 from December 2009 to June 2010. "I had to wait for the next shuttle to come up to bring me a new one. Now, rather than wait for a resupply ship to bring me a new tool, in the future, I could just print it."
Not a snob, just stupid. 3D printing isn't limited to PLA. http://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/ornl-demonstrates-3-d-printing-with-carbon-fiber
The vast majority of the atmosphere, by volume, is far too thin to breathe. Hell, there's mountain tops where you can stand with your feet firmly on the ground and still not have enough air to breathe without extended acclimization. And the atmosphere is far, far deeper than any mountain is tall.
There's no clear line marking the upper limit of the atmosphere, but the ISS is orbiting low enough that it needs regular orbital boosts to avoid being brought down by air resistance.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Cooling would probably be an issue in vacuum - the primary cooling channel for freshly deposited plastic would be by transfering heat to the layer below it. The first few layers might not have an issue, but I suspect that as it got thicker the rigidity of the print would suffer dramatically, especially if there were any narrow choke points restricting the heat flow. It'd be like trying to print with jello after a while. You could slow the printing to allow adequate thermal dissipation, but that seems counterproductive.
You might also have other issues - for example what's the boiling point of plastic in vacuum? If nothing else those toxic gasses we're trying to avoid are going to escape from the plastic much more energetically if there's no ambient pressure.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.