3D-Printing

CNET: Mining asteroids to 3D-print space stations: Beyond pie in the sky?:

The idea is that it should be much cheaper and more efficient to build what’s needed to further space exploration using resources extracted from asteroids than shuttling materials from Earth. Imagine sending a robot into a mountain with some mining tools and a 3D printer. The robot mines material to feed into the 3D printer, which prints up more robots and supplies to build a smelter at the mouth of the mine, which is then used to build even bigger things. You get the idea.

Take that whole sci-fi premise and rocket it into space, and that seems to be about what DSI is hoping to accomplish.

Das klingt illusorisch, geradezu absurd realitätsfern, muss es aber nicht sein. Das Entscheidende ist, dass die 3D-Print-Variante relativ offensichtlich der wirtschaftlichere Weg gegenüber dem Transport von Materialien und Bauteilen von der Erde in’s All ist.… Weiterlesen

Jon Evans argumentiert auf TechCrunch, dass 3D-Printer keine Geräte für Privathaushalte werden:

Oh, I agree that 3D printing will be a serious threat to manufacturing as we know it. But not at home. That doesn’t make sense. Instead, we’ll have two kinds of communal 3D printer shops.

In high-infrastructure areas, there’ll be a clutch of online providers a la Stratasys (and I expect one of them to be Amazon.com): you’ll pick your 3D design from a huge online menu, send them size information and maybe a few photos from some kind of cunningly designed app, tweak the 3D preview until you’re happy, and they’ll print it out in some vast warehouse full of high-end high-speed 3D printers and ship it to you, possibly that same day.

In low-infrastructure areas, or if you’re a casual hobbyist, or if you have very specific requirements, you’ll head down the road to your nearest local printing facility.