3D Printers to Build NASA's Spare Parts & Rocket Engines

Charles Bolden, NASA administrator and former astronaut, praises the potential of 3D printing to one day quickly create any parts that space travelers would need, and do it with material from whatever planet, moon, or asteroid they happen to inhabit.

In his recent State of the Union address,

President Obama spoke glowingly of 3D printing, saying the technology "has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything." At NASA, the revolution is already under way. Engineers are now testing 3D printing (more broadly known as additive manufacturing) for making engine parts for the Space Launch System (SLS), the vehicle slated to take mankind back to the moon, to asteroids, and someday to Mars. A 3D printer will soon head to the International Space Station. And in the future, NASA hopes 3D printers will let astronauts fabricate tools, spare parts, or virtually anything their mission requires throughout the solar system.

"Additive manufacturing is this new technology that really gives us an endless set of possibilities for the products we manufacture at NASA for our terrestrial launch vehicle and our in-space applications," says John Vickers, assistant manager of the Materials and Processes Laboratory at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. In a sign of how seriously NASA is taking the technology, on Friday agency chief Charles Bolden toured an additive manufacturing facility at Marshall. "The things going on here are very impressive," Bolden tells PM. "I was surprised by the maturity of the systems already."