Science Sunday - 3-D printing

3-D printing is something I've kind of covered before with skin printing, but I thought I'd go into it a little bit more because it's basically the future of production and because Janet Reid mentioned it on her awesome blog.

Imagine yourself on a space shuttle (alas, not a NASA space shuttle), billions of miles from earth. You are in the depths of space, all alone with only the oppressive black of infinity and the distant glint of unfamiliar stars to keep you company. You are out fixing the orbital maneuvering engines, when all of the sudden you lose the grip on your wrench and it is sent twirling into outer space. You are suddenly without a wrench, and without a hardware store to go purchase a new one (there is simply not enough demand to warrant an outer space hardware store. Sorry, captain.)

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Enter: your handy dandy 3-D printer! With it you can print your wrench way out in space all by your lonesome.

How?

^This is an exciting video, but less informative

v This is a boring video, but more informative

pick your poison

Basically the printer makes a 3D image of the object you want to print, and then, like your home printer, creates layer upon layer of material until the full object has been created. The above video uses a powder to create their 3D objects, but other printers melt and soften the materials in order to put them together, while others use liquid that is then chemically cured later.

Now, if only they could do this with food.... mmm, I could really go for a 3-D hamburger right about now!