NASA is sending a 3D printer and a fire starter to the ISS

While NASA creates with one hand, it destroys with other. The next supply ship for the International Space Station will carry an advanced 3D printer and a test of how fire spreads in space when it blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The unscrewed Cygnus spacecraft is the fifth cargo delivery by spacecraft firm Orbital ATK and the second since one of the company’s rockets exploded on launch in 2014. In addition to carrying food, water and other regular supplies to the ISS, the craft will loft the Additive Manufacturing Facility, an upgraded version of the 3D printer already in use on the station. The printer that’s already up there is basically a prototype. The second printer will be able to print with multiple materials, has about eight times the print volume and faster with higher resolution. NASA will use the printer to manufacture objects in orbit, but made in space will also take orders from other paying customers who want to access to the ISS. Launching anything to the ISS is expensive and you have to wait for room on spacecraft like Cygnus, but plans for 3D printers can simply be emailed – it’s the closest thing we’ve got to teleportation. Eventually, made in Space plans to produce entire satellites. Also launching on Cygnus is NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Experiment, or Saffire. Once the spacecraft has reached the ISS and been unloaded by the astronauts, it will be stuffed full if waste and sent back down to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere. On the way down NASA researchers will start a fire inside a 1 meter-long box inside the craft and watch how it behaves. It will be the largest manmade fire ever created in space, and understanding how it spreads will help NASA design safety features to mitigate the risk of fire in crewed spacecraft.