3D printing spider robot in space

[basbr]

I just found the most crazy brilliant idea today.

http://www.tethers.com/papers/SpiderFab_SpringNIAC_v6.pdf

the robot go's by the name of spiderfab

its a spider robot that literally prints (parts of) space stations.

if this ever gets of the ground it would be a big step forward for construction in space.

follow the link in the top for some more information,

and let me know what you think about this.

[Warhorse]

Interesting ... My major concern would be that in order to pull it off, you have to have a fairly high precision machine working to rather close tolerances for extended periods of time, without any possibility of maintenance. I'm sure they'll get it right eventually, but I would bet that Comrade Murphy will get a couple of good rounds in before they do ... :-)

[Nuke]

i find it unlikely that a purely autonomous construction system would be used, as opposed to a mostly autonomous approach. you would want a few humans on sight to oversee construction, fix any problems that might arise, and maintain the robots. you might have a swarm of robot builders maintained by only 2 or 3 astronauts.

this would be a technology to watch for proponents of orbital solar energy. as this lets you build a microwave transmitter that is capable of punching through the atmosphere, and do it on a budget.

[Neil1993]

The first application they mentionned for it seemed really cool (creating a starshade to help with the detection of exoplanets). I wonder if this could be used to assemble large interplanetary or interstellar vehicles in space using stronger and more heavy duty materials.

[Nibb31]

Yes, it could be useful for building large structures, like sunshades, radiators, solar panels, or large antenna dishes.

Pretty cool technology if they ever get it to work.

[Scotius]

The first application they mentionned for it seemed really cool (creating a starshade to help with the detection of exoplanets). I wonder if this could be used to assemble large interplanetary or interstellar vehicles in space using stronger and more heavy duty materials.

Imagine this: Lifting naked engines, fuel tanks, crew quarters etc. and dumping them in a clump in parking orbit. Then astronauts will come, connect everything together and go back to Earth. Then along comes the SpiderBot, and starts weaving its net around internal components of a spaceship, creating any structural support the vessel will need (which shouldn't be much - it's already in microgravity, and doesn't need to withstand any serious acceleration). There is no need to send heavy structural elements to space - couple of tanks of whatever raw compound bot will use will be sufficient.

[Neil1993]

Imagine this: Lifting naked engines, fuel tanks, crew quarters etc. and dumping them in a clump in parking orbit. Then astronauts will come, connect everything together and go back to Earth. Then along comes the SpiderBot, and starts weaving its net around internal components of a spaceship, creating any structural support the vessel will need (which shouldn't be much - it's already in microgravity, and doesn't need to withstand any serious acceleration). There is no need to send heavy structural elements to space - couple of tanks of whatever raw compound bot will use will be sufficient.

Sounds like the future of human space exploration. As someone who has worked with 3D printing, I can say that the technology holds great promise and it's use it space is almost a must.