Reading just the headlines about ESA’s initiative to print metal part in space, one would believe that the sky is the limit (again).
But reading further, we learn that this initiative concerns a ‘technology demonstration project’ to explore technical feasibility and to compare the influence of printing in space with reference parts produced on earth.
The project concerns four parts, smaller than a soda can in size, weighing less than 250 gram per part, and taking about two to f
our weeks to print..
The custom developed 3D-printer is operated from earth which doesn’t seem ideal. The parts are rather small and highly inaccurate which means limitations in applications.
Another concern that came to mind is that the 3d-printer on board of the ISS weights about 180 kg. This might not be too much for a machine or industrial 3D-printer, but bear in mind that the costs per kilogram in space are higher than the cost of gold..
And despite the fact that plastic printing in space is already applied, we should not forget that this initiative might be economical feasible within only 10 to 15 years.
After all, AM service providers and end-use customers already have a hard time to find the right applications for metal printing on earth..
I remember my post about printed pizza’s, an initiative which seemed not to be successful. But even if it would have succeeded and printed pizza’s would have been eatable and even tasty; which problems would it have solved?
