In-Situ Resources, 3D Printing Seen Enabling Deep-Space Exploration

摘要

Here is an illuminating set of numbers when it comes to sustaining even a small crew of humans in Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Serving as home for up to seven astronauts and cosmonauts, the ISS is provisioned with about 28,600 lb. of spare parts. Another 39,600 lb. of spares are stowed on Earth ready for timely launches aboard resupply missions. But based on a predicted mean time between failures, the components that fail each year aboard the ISS amount to about 990 lb. The numbers were provided by Jennifer Edmunson, a planetary geologist and the Jacobs Space Exploration Group In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) lead for In-Space Manufacturing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The quantities are likely to increase as the separation between Earth and future explorers rises as they reach out to settle the Moon and Mars.