Additive manufacturing, a trendy technique also known as three-dimensional printing, probably will not spark an in-space manufacturing revolution any time soon, according to a report published July 18 by the National Research Council's (NRC) Aerospace Engineering Board. "The specific benefits and potential scope of additive manufacturing remain undetermined, and there has been a substantial degree of exaggeration, even hype, about its capabilities in the short term," the NRC's Committee on Space-Based Additive Manufacturing wrote in its report, "3D Printing in Space." The committee, which despite its cautionary tone maintained that 3-D printing could one day revolutionize the design of space hardware, prepared its report at the request of NASA and the U.S. Air Force -groups that are not likely to begin printing entire spacecraft on orbit until "substantially in the future," the panel concluded.
展开▼
