/ News
ESA Announces Plans to Send Their Own POP3D 3D Printer to the International Space Station
As mentioned in an article published earlier in the day about a mobile 3D printer created by three South African students, which they hope will one day be able to 3D print objects on soils foreign to earth, it appears as if ‘3D Printing’ is becoming a popular phrase within the space industry.
As you have likely heard by now, a company based out of Moffett Field, California, called Made In Space, has recently sent the very first 3D printer into space, as their machine made its way to the International Space Station(ISS) in September. With the help of NASA, this printer will be used for a variety of interesting experiments, hopefully leading to advanced applications for 3D printing from space.
Portable On-Board Printer (POP3D)
Today we’ve learned, that soon, the Made in Space 3D printer will not be the only additive manufacturing device at the ISS. The European Space Agency (ESA), has also been researching 3D printing heavily as of late, particularly in their recent report on possibly 3D printing bases on the moon or even Mars, for astronauts to live and work in. Unsurprisingly, the ESA will also be sending their very own 3D printer to the ISS in the first half of 2015.
The machine, called the Portable On-Board Printer (POP3D), which is being developed and constructed in Italy, thanks to funding by the country’s ASI space agency, will make its way to the ISS to coincide with the ESA’s Futura mission with astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. The printer will require very minimal power, as well as limited crew involvement to function. Using a fused extrusion process, the POP3D is shaped like a cube, measuring 25cm a side, and weighing in at approximately 5.5kg in Earth’s gravity. It prints with biodegradable PLA filament like those used in popular desktop machines such as the MakerBot Replicator.
“Part of the challenge of designing a 3D printer for the station was to ensure its operation does not affect the crew environment,” stated Giorgio Musso of Thales Alenia Space Italy, principal investigator for the project.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti
The plan is to have the machine print out various objects from the ISS and return those objects to Earth for further inspection and testing by which the Italian Institute of Technology will be involved.
The ESA plans to take charge within the niche where 3D printing and space converge. They look to head up numerous organizations and players within the combined fields, many of whom met at a workshop at the ESA’s technical center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands recently.
“Previously, we have had various efforts mushrooming up in different parts of Europe,” explained Tommaso Ghidini, Head of the Materials Technology Section in ESA. “Now we have a community of people talking together, thinking together and headed in a common direction.”
It will be interesting to see what kind of collaboration there will be between NASA, Made in Space and the ESA on furthering the use and applications of 3D Printing within space. If anything, this announcement should at least speed up research and development pertaining to additive manufacturing outside the earth’s atmosphere.
Let’s hear your thoughts on the ESA’s plans. Discuss this story in the ESA POP3D Space Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/24673/esa-iss-3d-printer-space-pop3d/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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