NASA's 3D Printed Rocket Engine Passes Extreme Stress Tests

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=hypno-toad;42045468]The concept of manufacturing stuff in orbit however is rather efficient once the infrastructure is established.

One of the main reasons space travel is so expensive is simply the immense quantity of fuel required to break earth's gravity with a large rocket (a rocket that also needs to be tough and heavy enough to survive the trip up) [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rocket_spacelaunch"]If a large part of that equation could be removed[/URL] and building materials simply sent up in raw form, cheaper and more fruitful operations in space would be a more practical reality as lightweight spacecraft and structures could simply be printed and assembled in orbit without fear of bursting apart on the way through the atmosphere.[/QUOTE]

Which is why I imagine aerospace companies and SpaceX and NASA will be really pushing for this tech

[Darkride196]

[QUOTE=katbug;42027479]I imagine it'd be cool if a mechanic could download the 3d file for the exact piece they needed on the spot. no matter how custom.[/QUOTE]

like a 199$ set of gaskets that cost 2$ to make.

[Missing User]

[QUOTE=booster;42041734]I'm just imagining a online tutorial of 3D printers in the future, and someone says.

"Just right click the 3D printer icon, press properties, then go to 'Substances' and change 'plastic' into 'metal'. "[/QUOTE]

The is pretty damn close to how multi-material printers work now. Some printers have 2(or more) heads to do multiple color/material prints at once. One very useful feature of this is support material that dissolves in water. In this way you get really clean prints that would normally be impossible/require way too much cleanup.

btw IIRC there are only 3 of these machines in existence right now, one for NASA, one for the airforce, and one in a university.

[ewitwins]

[QUOTE=Widgeon;42027408]Homebuilders. Making 3d printed homes lol[/QUOTE]

I'd much rather have the ability to 3D-print ships.

Imagine being able to commission a company to print out your own ship, ranging from the size of a kayak to one of those huge yachts.

[Irkalla]

[QUOTE=Kyle902;42039453]Star Trek replicators simply turn pure energy into whatever object. It's not 3d printing so much as it is energy matter conversion[/QUOTE]

It's worth noting that Star Trek replicators reassemble matter from other matter. In the case of the Enterprise-D, the source of this matter was feces.

[paindoc]

[QUOTE=frozensoda;42047021]The is pretty damn close to how multi-material printers work now. Some printers have 2(or more) heads to do multiple color/material prints at once. One very useful feature of this is support material that dissolves in water. In this way you get really clean prints that would normally be impossible/require way too much cleanup.

btw IIRC there are only 3 of these machines in existence right now, one for NASA, one for the airforce, and one in a university.[/QUOTE]

Yeah well PVA is like double the cost. and multimaterial printing is nice but doesn't have any actual engineering application imo, dual heads is enough because of support material