Metall im Weltraumland auf der Erde hergestellt

It was made in space before it ended up here on earth, where it was made before it was sent back into space, where it was made again before returning to earth.

Really cool stuff. There’s another team that got a NIAC grant to blow glass in space (they’re thinking Moon surface, since there’s pretty much everything there but the argon / other gases that they might use). I know NASA also used polymer 3d printing before, now metal.

In general I think the „3d printing revolution“ has been a bit underwhelming, there were people saying that everyone will own one, and it’ll be the death of parts & utensils, but that hasn’t happened yet. But in remote places, ISS / Moon / Mars, this makes perfect sense. Mass is mass, but if you can carry a roll of filament or a „bag“ of metal and then produce whatever parts you need, that would really make it worthwhile to study, fund and improve the tech.

And further out we might even start to see mining -> grinding / separating -> printing in situ. Bring chips, motors, boards, etc and „print“ your spars and everything else for your machines right there. Cool stuff.