NASA hopes to launch a 3D printer into space next year that will help astronauts build necessary tools.
If all goes well, this will be the first 3D printer to leave Earth's atmosphere, and could significantly lower the cost of future missions, the BBC reported.
The printer will need to be able to survive the launch, and must be safe to operate within the close quarters of a spacecraft.
NASA has chosen the small start-up company Made in Space to build the game-changing printer.
"Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station," Aaron Kemmer, the company's chief executive, told the BBC. "Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the parts could be 3D printed when they needed them?"
In the 1970s astronauts had to scramble to put together a makeshift carbon dioxide filter using a "plastic bag, manual cover, and gaffer tape." In the future, astronauts could have the security of knowing they can make a crucial implement in a flash.
"If you want to be adaptable, you have to be able to design and manufacture on the fly, and that's where 3D printing in space comes in,'' Dave Korsmeyer, director of engineering at Nasa's Ames Research Center, said, the BBC reported.
The new 3D printer recently passed some crucial testing, the success was considered to be a "milestone" towards the proposed 2014 launch, a Made in Space press release reported.
"Passing these developmental tests on the 3D Print test unit shows that our design strategies and philosophies were well-aimed. Our goal going into Critical Design Review (CDR) was to develop a design for a flight-ready unit. We hit our target," Michael Snyder, Co-PI on the 3D Printing in Zero G Experiment, and Made in Space's Director of R&D, said.
