Engineers at Bremen’s Constructor University are developing a unique rotating 3D printer that operates in zero-gravity for future missions to the Moon, according to a report.
The machine’s design remains a mystery, but it’s said to ‘fold like an umbrella,’ opening up to scuttle along the lunar surface like a crab, before laying down an anchor to start 3D printing.
According to the project’s lead researcher, Yilmaz Uygun, this bizarre sounding device is designed to reduce the number of parts that need to be launched into space. With each space resupply said to cost $107,000 per kilo, there’s an urgent need for cheaper solutions.
Using their solar-powered 3D printer, Uygun says it could be possible to make parts as they’re needed, rather than sending up “countless spares” and storing them in space.
Initially, the research team anticipates sending powder 3D printing material up to the Moon with their machine, but they’re already working on ways of mining asteroids for feedstock.
Having founded a start-up and gained European Space Agency (ESA) backing, the team is well on its way to achieving its goals, but there are still roadblocks that need to be overcome. Huge temperature fluctuations, for instance, are likely to interfere with how their machine works.
As such, Uygun and his colleagues are sticking to smaller scale models, while they work their way through such issues. Once their design is finalized, they plan to introduce a full-scale 3D printer and test it here on Earth, before firing it onto the surface of the Moon for trials.
With NASA set to return to the Moon in 2026 – and the likes of ICON weighing up the feasibility of 3D printing facilities from moondust – the sky may not even be the limit for the technology. In the case of Constructor University’s project, the limit may now stretch into the cosmos.
