NASA and printing spaceships on a 3D printer

Delving into the knowledge and news of the space industry, you can find out that modern launch vehicles are currently limited in terms of carrying capacity.

NASA engineers came up with an interesting and non-standard solution: to carry out the space shipment of the main parts of specific satellites for assembly in orbit, and to reproduce the parts that are still missing on a special 3D printer.

This proposal eliminates the need to send ready-made models of spacecraft or satellites into space. Made in Space Corporation and NASA are already drawing up a plan to equip the Achinaut One installation with all necessary materials (consumables), including 3D printers.

Upon the arrival of all the equipment in Earth's orbit, the process of printing all the necessary items will be launched, including the activation of the production process directly in open space.

The planned results of Achinaut One are the creation of ten-meter blades for solar panels, which, in turn, are designed to provide more energy. This, in turn, significantly exceeds the energy indicators of ships sent and assembled from our planet.

NASA employees claim that the use of technology such as 3D printing allows you to assemble antennas, telescopes and so on. In addition, according to experts, this approach will greatly simplify the sending forwarders to the Moon or Mars.

At the moment, investments in this program have reached an amount of almost 18 million dollars. The launch of the 3D printing machine is planned as early as 2022.

The starting point was New Zealand, where the launch station, Rocket Lab Electron, is located.