Time to read: 6 min
您只是在过去的六个月里前往红色星球，火星。您坐下来吃第一顿饭，然后伸手去拿叉子……但是您意识到自己忘记了！您可以简单地将CAD文件上传到您带来的3D打印机并打印叉子！
当然,这只是一个有趣的服务le. The reality is that3D printing technologywill radically change how we complete space exploration missions, as well as the way scientific experiments are conducted in space. Let’s look at what’s being done now, with an eye toward the future.
3D Printing in Space: How it Works
3D printing on Earth is hard. 3D printing in space without gravity is really,reallyhard. In space, it uses a filament deposition modeling process, which takes a plastic filament, extruded through a hot tip, to heat up the plastic almost to melting point to get it malleable. This method is chosen for use in space, as opposed to液体或粉末树脂, because the filament is easy to control in zero gravity.
Also, the International Space Station (ISS) has very strict requirements on what can be on the Space Station, and powder or liquid resin would cause too many concerns—what if something were to go wrong with the printer? The powder or liquid would be uncontrollable and could contaminate the entire spacecraft.
这re is one existing printer called the Additive Manufacturing Facility that adheres to these strict requirements and is currently operating in space on the ISS.
Current 3D Printing in Space
旨在以零重力运行的第一台3D打印机是零G打印机，该打印机是在NASA和制作太空and launched into orbit on September 21, 2014. It served as a test bed for understanding the long-term effects of microgravity on 3D printing.
然后，在2015年，增材制造设施(AMF) became a permanent manufacturing machine on the ISS, capable of off-world manufacturing in the hands of space developers everywhere who wish to get select hardware to space faster, more safely, and more affordably than traditional launch methods.
这R3DO是设计零重力材料的回收材料，以便将废物或以前印刷品的材料融化并转回3D打印原料。这提高了off World添加剂制造的可持续性和整体效率。当资源稀缺并且必须与拥有的资源合作时，这项技术非常重要。想想什么Matt Damon used in the Martian to grow his food…
这些打印机是由太空制造的开发和制造的，其目标是使人类在太空中的未来。随着太空中的3D打印变得更加复杂，选项和应用的增加，看到它们的产品如何继续发展将是令人兴奋的。
Why 3D Printing in Space is So Important
So why is this technology so important? There are lots of scenarios—for example, imagine a critical bolt on the ISS breaking. The astronauts would run out of oxygen if it couldn’t be replaced within minutes, and waiting for a re-supply mission would not be an option.
这种类型的情况正是NASA测试3D打印A的原因棘轮扳手on the ISS. NASA wanted to validate the process for 3D printing on demand, so they printed this 4.48-inch-long by 1.29-inch-wide, 104 layer plastic wrench.
3D printing may be challenging in zero gravity, but the benefits outweigh any challenges. Made In Space continues to move forward with the technology by developing and operating larger scale microgravity production facilities.
正在进行的重要项目是制造光纤on the ISS. Terrestrially produced fiber suffers from certain glass impurities and microcrystal formations under the effects of gravity. Made In Space hopes that by removing gravity, it will improve both the response time and throughput advantage of traditional optical fiber currently in use for telecommunications. This could have huge implications for future space-to-Earth manufacturing.
这Future of 3D Printing in Space
与其简单地在卫星上装有3D打印机，还可以想象3D打印整个卫星。Tethers Unlimited通过使空间系统能够在轨道上制造和集成关键组件来改变我们构建和部署航天器的方式。
Currently, the various components of a satellite—its antennae and solar panels, for example—have to be carefully designed to be foldable to fit inside a launch rocket. Once in orbit, those components have to unfold carefully and correctly, a hurdle that has tripped up many past missions.
With care, these issues can be avoided. But the limit on how much you can fold and pack into one mission is currently overcome primarily by building bigger rockets. Satellites that can be constructed in orbit would allow rockets to carry its material up in a very compact and durable form, allowing for more material to fit into each launch.
Tethers Unlimited is working on this and began by developing an architecture for a SpiderFab system, identifying the key capabilities required to fabricate large spacecraft components on-orbit. They developed two concept implementations of this architecture, one specialized for fabricating support trusses for large solar arrays (picture below), and the second a more flexible robotic system capable of fabricating many different spacecraft components, such as antenna reflectors and optical occulters.
这SpiderFab architecture is at a technology readiness level (TRL) of 3, which is a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology. The scale goes from 1 to 9, where a TRL of 1 means scientific research is beginning, a 2 means the basic principles have been studied and practical applications can be applied, and a 3 means that active research and design have begun. During a TRL of 3, a proof-of-concept model is constructed, and both analytical and laboratory studies are required to see if the technology is viable and ready to proceed further through the development process.
航天器组件的轨制造可以使太空程序能够避免发射罩的体积限制，并创建具有极大孔径和非常长的基线的系统，以提供更高的分辨率，更高的带宽和更高的SNR数据。因此，任何太空计划/航天器将从这项技术中受益匪浅。
这SpiderFab effort will radically change the way we build and deploy spacecraft, by enabling space systems to fabricate and integrate key components on-orbit.
SpiderFab并不是唯一的“在太空中建立”概念：在太空中制造有一个关于如何实现这一目标的竞争想法，Archinaut, which will enable the first additive manufacturing, aggregation, and assembly of large and complex systems in space without astronaut extravehicular activity. We’ll start to see more competing ideas and products coming out in the next ten to fifteen years.
分开思想
将设备带到国际空间站（ISS），这可能需要数月甚至数年的时间，这是太多时间。对于过去的低地轨道（LEO）的任务，像火星一样，可能不可能从地球上重新供应。
我们将技术具有像器皿和螺栓一样必不可少的3D打印物品，因此我们必须利用该技术用于空间应用。从ISS内部的3D打印螺栓再到ISS本身的打印部分，3D打印技术将改变我们完成太空探索任务的方式和在太空中进行科学的方式。
