At 9:28pm GMT on November 24th, the Zero G Printer from Made in Space completed its first print on the International Space Station (ISS), making it, not only the first 3D printer to make it to space, but also the first to actually function up/out/over there, as well. This is the first time that a piece of hardware has been additively manufactured at the ISS and not just launched from the blue marble below.
The print is a part of the printer itself, the faceplate for the extruder’s printhead, symbolizing the possibility of, one day, 3D printing a 3D printer in space and embodying the mission of the RepRap 3D printer movement. A small experiment in 3D printing in space, the part represents the potential to fabricate replacement parts on demand, without the need for rockets and the like. Chief Strategy Officer for Made In Space, Mike Chen, explained, “For the first time, it’s no longer true that rockets are the only way to send hardware to space.”
CEO of Made In Space, Inc., Aaron Kemmer, said of the milestone, “When the first human fashioned a tool from a rock, it couldn’t have been conceived that one day we’d be replicating the same fundamental idea in space.…
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