Member-only story
Where No Printer Has Gone Before
Can you imagine being able to turn any thought into a reality — being able to turn an image from your mind into a physical object you could hold? Sounds a lot like a science fiction movie… but in theory it’s possible right now with 3D Printing.
3D printing is the process of creating three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file. It uses additive processes, meaning an object is made by laying down successive layers of a given material.
Where could we apply this technology to make real world impacts? Perhaps the most exiting application is that 3D printing has the potential to go beyond just material objects. It’s possible to 3D print human tissue and create replicas of organs.
Together, the 3D BioFabrication Facility (BFF) and the Techshot ADvanced Space Experiment Processor (ADSEP) have the ability to print human tissue in space.
But why space? Microgravity.
The simple fact is that when printing human tissue on Earth, the printed tissue is unable to support its own weight. This results in the structure collapsing into something that resembles more a puddle of biomaterials than anything else. However, when…
