space

The footage is showing a glimpse into the future of space travel technology has been recorded by scientists in the UK.Specialist cameras have filmed close-up footage of a rocket firing up using deep sea protective cases and shielding to protect the cameras from destruction.Scientists at <a href="https://pulsarfusion.com/" target="_blank">Pulsar Fusion</a> based in Bletchley captured the 4k footage facing into the nozzle of a hyper-fast rocket engine, which is designed for use in deep space.<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MzEyNDI5NjA1LVB1bHNhci1GdXNpb24tMjMwNDk1Ny5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;">In the video, viewers can see a ring of plasma at the core burning at millions of degrees – hotter than any gas on Earth and confined by an electromagnetic field which is firing out particles at speeds of over 20km a second.The fuel heavy, fiery exhausts of today’s space rockets will eventually be replaced by super-hot, plasma thrusters as seen in the video.This type of thruster is not suitable for launching spacecraft but becomes effective once the craft has left the atmosphere.<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EFG3zuVQEVc?&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;wmode=opaque" style="width: 788px; height: 450px;"></iframe>Pulsar thrusters are able to operate at speeds far greater than conventional combustion rockets, so these could provide the key to reducing mission times and costs to far-off planets currently out of our reach.Following this milestone, the privately owned UK business now plans to test the technology in space.Dr James Lambert, head of operations at Pulsar Fusion said “Pulsar has earned its place as one of the most advanced, privately owned space propulsion companies in the World. We are delighted with the result.<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MzEyNDU4MDMxLVNwYWNlLXRyYXZlbC1QdWxzYXItRnVzaW9uLVJpY2hhcmQtRGluYW4tMjMyMjMwNi5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;"><a href="https://pulsarfusion.com/" target="_blank">Pulsar Fusion</a> CEO Richard Dinan said “Pulsar will now commence testing of this technology in real world conditions with our partners in the USA, whilst simultaneously beginning construction of our larger, next generation device due for completion in 2022.“This project aims to operate a plasma firing at temperatures of several hundred million degrees and will involve advanced materials currently being developed alongside government fusion reactors.”<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MzEyNTYxMTU2LXB1bHNhci1mdXNpb24tNS5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 788px;">Pulsar Fusion specialises in developing Nuclear Fusion technology for use as propulsion. Whilst governments plan to demonstrate the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor (ITER) in 2025, Pulsar Fusion, a nimble start up in the UK, aims to have demonstrated nuclear fusion rocket engines in space before fusion technology is harnessed for grid power supply on Earth.Fusion rocket engines are useful technology using nuclear fusion technology today, whilst fusion for energy may still be several decades away due extensive additional technological requirements and the multi-national and typically highly bureaucratic power station timescales.&nbsp;<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNTk0MzEyNjI3MTk3LXB1bHNhci1mdXNpb24tbWlkZGxlXzAuanBnIiwgImVkaXRzIjogeyJyZXNpemUiOiB7IndpZHRoIjogOTUwLCAiZml0IjogImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 788px;">Fusion rockets do not require large steam turbines and much of the expensive equipment necessary for a power station build project that can take many years to finance and construct.However, by 2100, world governments predict nuclear fusion will be the dominant power supply of our planet, replacing nuclear fission.Nuclear Fusion rocket technology has the ability to half mission times to Mars and could open up the possibility of visiting planets outside of our solar system.

Footage showing a glimpse into the future of space travel technology has been recorded by scientists in the UK.

Footage captures nuclear reaction that unlocks deep space travel

Every two weeks, late in the evening, people are able to see a swarm of strikingly bright points of light crossing the night sky. An array of images and spectacular videos of such sightings circulate on social media. Word soon gets around that these glowing strings of light are not, in fact, an alien fleet. Rather, they are the Starlink satellites from SpaceX, the US space company run by Elon Musk, streaking across the night sky in &#39;trains&#39;.This visual spectacle and the ambitious project behind it, which is on an enormous scale, are fascinating. Felix Huber and Manfred Gaida explain the background to the project in an interview. They talk about the impact that these strings of light have on astronomy and space, and answer the questions that people sent to DLR when it put out a call on social media.Felix Huber is Director of <a href="https://www.dlr.de/content/en/institutes/facility-space-operations-and-astronaut-training.html" target="_blank" title="Facility Space Operations and Astronaut Training">DLR Space Operations and Astronaut Training</a>. This is the central institution for spaceflight operations in Germany. Manfred Gaida is an astronomer and researcher at the <a href="https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/space-administration.html" target="_blank" title="Space Administration">DLR Space Administration</a> and an expert on satellite-based space research and optical astronomy.This interview was conducted by Philipp Burtscheidt.The eighth batch of 60 Starlink satellites is scheduled to be launched next Sunday, 17 May 2020. What is the purpose of the Starlink constellation?Huber: Elon Musk wants to enable satellite internet access &ndash; first for the United States and Canada, and later for the whole world. For remote regions, this may be the very first chance of getting high-speed broadband internet. Musk needs thousands of satellites to maintain a connection without interruptions and at a high bandwidth. The satellites are placed in low orbits, at approximately 500 to 600 kilometres from the surface, so many satellites are required to achieve full Starlink coverage.A Facebook user writes: I have seen one of the &#39;trains&#39; several times. But the satellites were always a few seconds apart. It did not look like the many videos on YouTube. When are we likely to see the closely spaced &#39;string of pearls&#39; formation? Does this only occur shortly after launch, with them later drifting apart?Huber: That is exactly what happens. The satellites only appear close together just after they are launched. After that, they are &#39;pulled apart&#39; by difference in their speed or the on-board engine, until they are evenly distributed around the orbital plane. After they are released, you see the &#39;string of pearls&#39; formation in the sky for a little while, and &ndash; appearing somewhat larger and further away &ndash; the spent upper stage of the launcher.Last September, ESA&#39;s Aeolus satellite had to perform an evasive manoeuvre in order to avoid colliding with a Starlink satellite. Near-Earth space is getting quite full.Gaida: Once the Starlink system is fully operational, there will be approximately five times more satellites in orbit than are currently in space. As of 30 September 2019, the figure was 2218. Amateur astronomers back in the 1970s would only have been able to spot or photograph a satellite by pure chance. Taking a picture of a random satellite track was a real source of pride. Things are very different today.Huber: It is getting very crowded. There are currently already 30,000 pieces of debris in orbit. The Starlink system will add 12,000 satellites to that situation. A certain percentage of failures is expected. Defective satellites cannot be &#39;de-orbited&#39; in the normal manner &ndash; that is, deliberately made to re-enter the atmosphere and thus burn up. If more than one to two percent of the satellites fail, this will cause a cascade effect, referred to as the Kessler syndrome. This is where pieces of debris crash into one another, creating an ever-larger field of debris. According to current reports, approximately five percent of the Starlink satellites are not functional. That is a critical level.What impact will the further increase in numbers of satellites have on optical and radio astronomy? Gaida: A few studies on megaconstellations have now been carried out in the field of astronomy. One says that up to three percent of optical images will be unusable before sunrise and after sunset, when the reflections from satellites are at their most intense. However, other figures are imminent. Starting next year, the entire night sky will be scanned every three nights from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in northern Chile as part of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). This will use a special, wide-angle camera, and scientists will check for any changes. Projections for these wide-angle sky surveys suggest that 30 to 50 percent of the images will be affected. That is a considerable number. Several observatories are now working with SpaceX to develop countermeasures.Radio astronomers will also be affected, as their sensitive receivers may be disrupted by communications signals from the satellites as they pass overhead. Just consider how sensitive radio astronomy receiving systems are. For example, for the 100-metre radio telescope in Effelsburg, a mobile telephone on the Moon would be the third-strongest source of radiation, after the Sun and the remnants of the Cassiopeia A supernova.We were asked two questions about visibility and countermeasures. What technologies are available to reduce the brightness of a satellite in the night sky? Can it be &#39;camouflaged&#39;? And to what extent is SpaceX&#39;s stated intention to adjust the angle of the solar panels so that they reflect less light actually feasible?Huber: You could indeed &#39;camouflage&#39; the satellites by darkening them. However, if they are dark, they heat up more due to solar radiation. That heat then needs to be re-radiated. The solar panels will always reflect light to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the angle. Both options are somewhat limited.Satellites in orbit invariably have an impact on the entire world, yet missions are approved by national authorities. For example, the 12,000 Starlink satellites were approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a US government agency. Someone on Twitter has asked whether anyone can veto satellite missions.Huber: No. In aviation, countries have sovereignty over their territory and can issue rules for their own airspace. No such thing exists for space. National supervisory authorities approve a satellite launch. Once it has been approved, it can fly.Like controlled airspace, we would need a controlled expanse of space, with international coordination. However, altitudes below 400 kilometres could remain uncontrolled, as objects there are more subject to the effects of the residual atmosphere. This area &#39;tidies itself up&#39;, so to speak, as satellites there automatically lose altitude due to atmospheric resistance and eventually burn up. This means that &#39;littering&#39; isn&rsquo;t such a big problem in low orbits as it is higher up.Why does Starlink need so many satellites?Huber: For global network coverage, SpaceX would need a couple of thousand satellites &ndash; far fewer than 12,000. They require this enormous quantity in order to increase the available bandwidth. That said, there are other concepts that make do with significantly fewer satellites.Gaida: The 12,000 are the satellites that have been approved so far; another 30,000 are planned. The entire sky has an area of approximately 42,000 square degrees, so that, statistically speaking, there will be a Starlink satellite in every square degree. One square degree equates to the space that four full Moons, arranged as a square, would take up in the sky.Sustainability is a real buzzword at the moment in business, politics and society at large. How will SpaceX deal with the issue of space debris?Huber: The satellites have a de-orbiting mechanism and an electric propulsion system. On average, a satellite will &#39;live&#39; for five years. After its service life is up, the thrust of its propulsion system should bring it low enough for it to re-enter the atmosphere relatively quickly. But what happens if the de-orbiting controls fail? In that case, it could take a lot more than the required 25 years for it to descend far enough to burn up.To give some figures, assuming a five-year service life and 30,000 satellites, 6000 satellites will need to be replaced every year. This means that the 6000 old satellites will increasingly be moving through lower orbits every year. Considerable numbers will end up doing this over the years. They will cross paths with lower-flying systems, including the International Space Station (ISS). This is seen in a very critical light.Gaida: On top of all that, more megaconstellations are also being planned. Just think of Amazon, Samsung and One Web. Such missions will amount to many more thousands of satellites.Huber: Exactly. Another issue is the electric propulsion system, with which collision avoidance manoeuvres are performed more slowly than with chemical engines. But it is often the case that evasive action needs to be taken at very short notice and the orbit must be altered quickly. The more crowded space becomes, the more important it is to have concepts for actively removing space debris. Once the Kessler syndrome emerges, we run the risk of low-Earth orbit (LEO) becoming permanently cluttered.This is a global problem that will be difficult to resolve through national decision making. What is happening at an international level, whether politically or in terms of space research and industry?Huber: Exchanges of information are taking place. For example, the major space agencies are notifying each other of the positions and dimensions of pieces of debris. Of course, there is no &#39;towing service&#39; or the like in space at the moment.Gaida: Apparently, SpaceX is now working with two major astronomical organisations: the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). They receive data that they can use to create simulations in order to quantify the effects of disruption and put forward suggestions on how, for example, satellites could be darkened, so that they reflect less sunlight, within the limits of what is feasible.Huber: However, these measures focus on optical disturbances. They will not solve the interference problems facing radio astronomers, or the risk of collisions and debris.Do you have any suggestions?Huber: It could be regulated in such a way that very large satellite constellations are only permitted to fly in very low orbits &ndash; up to 300 kilometres. At these altitudes, they would have to contend with atmospheric resistance, which would have to be compensated for with an electric propulsion system. If the system failed, the satellite would automatically descend and burn up. My colleagues have jokingly dubbed these &#39;Huber orbits&#39;. It would be the exact opposite of what is happening these days, with de-orbiting having to be actively initiated at greater altitudes.Thank you, Professor Huber and Dr Gaida. With your answers, you are sure to have provoked new questions and provided ample food for thought.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1589848880099-strings-of-pearls-in-the-night-sky.jpeg">Eye-catching newcomers to the sky, Credit: Giancarlo Foto4U (CC-BY 2.0)&nbsp;

Starlink launch, Credit: SpaceX (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Every two weeks, late in the evening, people are able to see a swarm of strikingly bright points of light crossing the night sky. An array of images and spectacular videos of such sightings circulate on social media.

Strings of pearls in the night sky - the Starlink satellite project

While it seems like we have only skimmed the surface of all the ways <a href="http://www.goscan3d.com/blog/3d-printing-dummies_176" target="_blank">3D printing</a> could eventually transform our lives, it increasingly emerges as a truly out-of-this-world component. And bad pun intended, we are actually being literal here: the technology is unveiling itself as one of the most essential building blocks of space exploration.Of course, 3D printing for space manufacturing makes perfect sense, since it circumvents several issues relative to traditional manufacturing: custom tools and machinery for each part, raw material availability, not to mention the weight and bulk of both&hellip; Manufacturing in space instead of bringing materials and components from Earth thus saves time and simplifies the process, while also expanding possibilities and opportunities. The need for a specific tool or replacement part suddenly arises? A 3D printer can (theoretically at least) produce it quickly and efficiently, without having to wait for the next shuttle from Earth!<h2>How it started</h2>In 2011, European aerospace giant Airbus sent the first 3D printed part outside of our atmosphere; it was a titanium alloy bracket used on the Atlantic Bird 7 telecom satellite.The company repeated the feat in 2015, when it produced the first space-qualified 3D printed to replace a satellite component, a structural bracket. The new part weighed 35 % less than the previous one, while being 40 % stiffer. Moreover, it was made into a single piece, instead of 4 riveted together in 44 places as for the old one. That&rsquo;s a very significant improvement!<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1588041075490-3d-printed-architecture-1.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Still, as Airbus Telecommunications Satellites R&amp;D Manager Alan Cox puts it, large-scale 3D printing in space is not quite a reality yet. &ldquo;We must first be able to prove the repeatability of 3D processes and our ability to consistently produce high-quality, affordable components,&rdquo; he explained.<h2>The Gravity Problem</h2>One of the challenges this new field faces is the absence of gravity in space. When 3D printing an object, a nozzle extrudes layer upon layer of material according to a 3D plan (which you can obtain using our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.goscan3d.com/en" target="_blank">3D scanners for 3D printing</a> for example) in order to slowly &ldquo;build&rdquo; it into the real world.Engineers and scientists have already figured out that some processes are much more suited for a &ldquo;microgravity&rdquo; environment than others: a filament deposition modelling with plastic heated to a relatively low temperature works fairly well, for instance. But other additive manufacturing techniques, such as those using molten metal, resin or powder, prove to be much more difficult to use in space, since the materials are less stable. The powder would just float around into a cloud, among other things.For these reasons, a 3D printer using the filament deposition modelling process is currently being tested by the NASA (using this prototype <a href="http://www.madeinspace.us/projects/3dp/" target="_blank">Zero-G 3D printer</a>) on the International Space Station and it already produced 21 parts, including the wrench shown below. Only a few minor issues have come up so far: for instance, objects sticking a little too well to the build plate and becoming slightly damaged after being &ldquo;forced&rdquo; out. NASA experts are trying to figure out if that is in fact due to the microgravity effect; if so, they are planning to find workarounds.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1588041111836-3d-printed-architecture-2.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Quincy Bean, a materials engineer and the principal investigator for this project, expects that once the technique is fully operational, astronauts will use 3D printing to replace crew tools, to replace life support systems or to build any specific tooling they need.<h2>Lunar Habitations Coming Up?</h2>Airbus is even taking part in an exciting project led by the European Space Agency, called AMAZE. Combining 28 partners from the industry as well as from the academic world, AMAZE aims at refining 3D printing techniques in order to make it possible to mass produce space-grade parts, even in metal.London-based architecture firm Foster + Partners is also part of the project, and their own participation is a very intriguing one&hellip; They imagined a lunar base for four people, using 3D printing techniques and regolith, or lunar soil, as a material.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1588041246210-3d-printed-architecture-3v2.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1588041259343-3d-printed-architecture-5.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The complex would shield astronauts from meteorites, gamma radiation and temperature variations. A tubular module would first be shipped from Earth by space rocket. Once landed, it would then be extended by an inflatable dome to support building structure. Finally, a robot-operated 3D printer would form a protective shell from regolith. The shell itself would be created using a hollow cellular structure a little bit like a honeycomb, for both solidity as well as raw material economy.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1588041282848-3d-printed-architecture-6.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The firm built a 1.5-ton mockup using simulated lunar soil, and tested the 3D printing techniques in a vacuum chamber mimicking moon conditions. We recently talked to you about the first 3D printed building, and we happen to think that&nbsp;<a href="http://www.goscan3d.com/blog/is-the-building-of-the-future-3d-printed_600" target="_blank">3D printed architecture</a> is one of the most promising applications for the technology. But this project truly is something else!It will be incredibly interesting to watch this all unfold. And not only just to be able to reply to the question &ldquo;Where will technology takes us next?&rdquo; by a resounding &ldquo;Well, to space!&rdquo; one day.

While it seems like we have only skimmed the surface of all the ways 3D printing could eventually transform our lives, it increasingly emerges as a truly out-of-this-world component.

3D Printed Architecture in Space: 3D Printing on the Moon

As NASA gears up to send humans back to the moon or even to Mars, they&#39;ll need to figure out how to keep these humans healthy and safe, far away from the resource-abundant Earth.It won&#39;t be feasible to pack everything they may need over the course of the mission, and resupply missions like those that keep the International Space Station (ISS) stocked will be prohibitively expensive and lengthy.What these astronauts can pack are Earth&#39;s unique renewable resource: cells. Cells of fungi and bacteria, for example, can be reprogrammed with synthetic DNA to produce specific materials, like bioplastics. These materials can then be fed into 3-D printers to manufacture things the astronauts may need during spaceflight &mdash; everything from hardware and medical devices to medicine and food.In an opinion piece&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(19)30110-6" target="_blank">published online</a> in&nbsp;Trends in Biotechnology, researchers from the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and NASA outline ways that synthetic biology and 3-D printing can support life during deep-space human missions. But to make these ideas a reality, NASA is seeking help.&quot;Our opinion piece is a call to action to get DIY [do-it-yourself] biology and makerspace communities involved,&quot; says Peter Carr, who works in Lincoln Laboratory&#39;s Bioengineering Systems and Technologies Group. The DIY biology community makes it possible for anyone in the public with an interest to conduct biological engineering. The community operates outside the traditional academic or industry settings and spreads knowledge through open sourcing. Many DIY biologist groups operate makerspaces that provide equipment and supplies for members to do experiments on their own.&quot;These separate, eclectic communities do bio in unconventional settings all the time and are pioneers at rapid prototyping and developing technologies with limited resources. There are parallels here with space and the needs of NASA crews,&quot; Carr says. &quot;But this also requires organizations like ours and NASA to connect more deeply with them in a two-way process, so there&#39;s a real pathway to getting people&#39;s work into space. We&#39;re just getting started.&quot;3-D printers are common staples of makerspaces. Experiments done on the ISS with 3-D printers have proven their utility for manufacturing on-demand items, like replacement hardware. But if 3-D printing is to be a reliable tool for long-duration missions in space, a new problem crops up: the need to supply the ship with the feedstock for the printers.To meet this need, the authors envision using synthetic biology to produce custom biological &quot;ink&quot; to 3-D print whatever may be needed over the course of a mission. Such a process would give scientists &quot;the autonomy to design for the unknown,&quot; says Jessica Snyder, a USRA researcher who leads the synthetic biology task for the NASA Academic Mission Services.Living organisms can convert sunlight, nitrogen, and water into finished products. Bioengineers can reprogram the inner logic of these organisms&#39; cells to produce target compounds. The building blocks to edit these cells can be digitized and sent to the space crew in the form of a DNA sequence, which can be synthesized, assembled, and inserted into an organism on ship. &quot;The idea is what we call a &#39;bits-to-biology&#39; converter,&quot; says David Walsh, a bioengineer at Lincoln Laboratory.Here&#39;s one example of how this vision could be implemented: Say that astronauts faced a situation that occurred on the ISS in 2007 &mdash; a solar panel has torn and needs a repair strap. On Earth, synthetic biologists, whether of the DIY type or not, design and test genetic programs instructing bacteria to produce the polymer feedstock for 3-D printing. (This work could also take place well before the need arises during the space mission.) The maker community works out the design of a strap from those materials. These genetic instructions and 3-D printing instructions are sent digitally from Earth to the space crew. The crew reproduces the genetic program, and the bacteria reproduce and synthesize the raw materials, which are used to 3-D print the strap. At the end of the product&#39;s life cycle, the part is recovered and digested, and a new one can be made.&nbsp;&quot;We have the power of digital information. We can design and work out all of the kinks on Earth and simply send the instructions to space,&quot; Walsh says.The same principles can be used to insert DNA into organisms in space to make target compounds for food or pharmaceuticals, which if brought directly from Earth would degrade over time from radiation in space.&nbsp;Astronauts would be able to conduct these complex biology experiments by using 3-D-printed microfluidic devices. These tiny &quot;lab-on-a-chip&quot; devices automatically control the flow and mixture of fluids through microchannels and use only trace amounts of chemicals to run hundreds of bioreactions in parallel in seconds. Genetic instructions would be sent directly to electronics controlling these microfluidic devices, enabling them to precisely follow the digital &quot;recipe&quot; to synthetize molecules of DNA.&nbsp;Earlier this year, Lynn Rothschild, a scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center who co-authored the opinion piece, led a team that ran the first synthetic biology experiments in space. The experiments aimed to test how well bacteria in space take in synthetic DNA inserted into their genome and how well the bacteria produce proteins, while being spun to simulate microgravity (what astronauts in the ISS encounter), lunar gravity, and Martian gravity levels. The experiments took place on the PowerCell payload aboard the German satellite mission Eu:CROPIS (Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-Food Production in Space).There is still a long way to go, however, both in experimenting with synthetic biology and figuring out all of the parameters that would make 3-D printing with biomaterials possible in space. &quot;For example, bacteria will need water and will take up space; they need the right environment to live; and they&#39;ll produce waste. We still need to put these ideas up against the real-world constraints,&quot; Carr says.But there&#39;s urgency in developing the concepts now. If synthetic biology and 3-D printing techniques can be proven and practiced in time for missions close to Earth, from which supplies can still be sent relatively quickly, then they can be counted on for a long-term mission to Mars.&quot;Flexible manufacturing techniques provide an excellent complement to Earth-based supply chains for destinations days away, like the International Space Station and possible lunar infrastructure, for examples. Let&#39;s take advantage of this redundancy to build an in-space manufacturing capacity to take us further into space more safely,&quot; Snyder says. Do-it-yourself biologists and makers can help today by publishing their designs for 3-D-printed products, microfluidic devices, or synthetic DNA on open-source repositories and by testing and editing published designs. &quot;If DIY bio communities use, iteratively improve, and ultimately approve of a technique, then that technique has been optimized more robustly than most individuals or team could offer without great effort. Partnering with these communities is an invaluable asset,&quot; Snyder adds. People who are interested can also see&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/index.html" target="_blank">NASA&#39;s Centennial Challenges</a>, which outline problems that NASA is seeking the public&#39;s help to solve.&nbsp;&quot;We often hear about the engineer who was inspired by NASA in their youth and works there now. But what about the bio people who are inspired by these grand ideas? How can they contribute? Now is a chance to transition their ideas to space,&quot; Carr says. &quot;There is so much opportunity to innovate.&quot;

Microfluidic devices, like those shown here, could be 3-D printed in space and used to construct DNA for insertion into bacteria, reprogramming them to make specific products.  Photo: Nicole Fandel

Do-it-yourself bio and maker communities can help NASA meet needs of long-distance missions.

Scientists look to synthetic biology and 3-D printing for life support in space

James Webb Space Telescope aims to take us to the unexplored realm of our cosmic origins. From observing the formation of the first stars and galaxies to looking for the possibility of life on other planets, the telescope will play a major role in the future of space exploration.

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Footage captures nuclear reaction that unlocks deep space travel

Strings of pearls in the night sky - the Starlink satellite project

3D Printed Architecture in Space: 3D Printing on the Moon

Scientists look to synthetic biology and 3-D printing for life support in space