3D Printer Installed as Station Preps for New Trio

Wilmore Installs 3D Printer
Commander Barry WIlmore works on Monday to install a 3D printer inside the Destiny laboratory’s Microgravity Science Glovebox. Credit: NASA TV

Commander Barry Wilmore worked throughout Monday to install a 3D printer to get the International Space Station and future crews ready for self-sufficiency. Wilmore will work to calibrate the printer and set up a demonstration of the additive manufacturing technology.

› Read about 3D Printing In Zero-G

His fellow crew members, Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova, worked on routine maintenance tasks and cargo transfers in the station’s Russian segment. They also paired up for a cardiovascular exam on an exercise bike, sampled the station’s atmosphere and tested television downlink signals.

The next trio to join Expedition 42 is in Kazakhstan counting down to a Nov. 23 launch aboard a Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft. They are set for a near six-hour ride to the International Space Station where they will live and work until May 2015.

Soyuz TMA-15M Launch Schedule
NASA TV will provide live televised coverage of the launch of Expedition 42 on Nov. 23 at 3:01 p.m. CST. Credit: NASA TV

3 thoughts on “3D Printer Installed as Station Preps for New Trio”

  1. Hey, correct me if I’m wrong, but. Didn’t Astronaut Donald Pettit fix one of those gloveboxes? I believe the official diagnosis was “gremlins”.

  2. It seams really interesting that this 3D zero-G printer makes staying in space more independent of help from Earth. I’m sure that in some fifty years they will make it completely independent. Ray Bradbury fantasy about life on Mars doesn`t seem so utopian already. And when it happens we won`t fly there with tons of things, but we’ll get there only one thing – a printer 😉

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