3d Printing on the Moon

3d Printing on the moon with lasers sounds science fiction, but Washington State has shown it’s feasible.  NASA loaned the lab rocks with the same chemical composition as the moon so they could run tests to see if regolith (moon rock) could be used as a build material.  By crushing the material and then melting it with lasers, they 3d printed some basic structures.

Crazy idea: send some robots up to the moon with 3d printers, where they dig up enough material to 3d print us a moon base.  If the regolith has the right composition and 3d printing electronics advances enough, maybe we only have to send up one to print a whole fleet for the task.

One stumbling block to the plan is that the robot needs to 3d print solar panels for energy.  Apparently, MIT has created solar panels with a technique similar to 3d printing, but can the resources on the moon surface be used to print the panels?

 

30. November 2012 by admin
Categories: News | 1 comment

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