3D printing on the Moon: Scientists from the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and the Technische Universitat Berlin (TU Berlin) are planning a flight to the Moon to melt lunar dust with laser beams.

In the MOONRISE project, the research team wants to explore the question of how we can use lasers to build landing sites, roads or buildings out of lunar dust in the future. To do this, the researchers want to bring a laser system to the lunar surface and melt the lunar dust, a material that is available everywhere on the Moon.

Artificial intelligence will support the laser process. The goal is to demonstrate that laser melting works on the Moon – and, in perspective, can be used to produce 3D-printed infrastructure for a lunar base.

From both a scientific and an economic perspective, our terrestrial satellite is a coveted target. Billionaires are not the only ones who want to fly well-paying guests around the Moon; the European Space Agency (ESA) also has plans for a “Moon Village”. The Moon’s dark backside would be suitable for powerful space telescopes.

In addition, the lower gravity and lack of an atmosphere make the Moon an ideal stopover for setting up missions to more distant destinations in space. But how will launch pads, landing sites and buildings be constructed on the lunar surface? “At a cost of up to a million dollars per kilogram, a complete transport of the material from Earth to the Moon would be extremely expensive”, explains Jorg Neumann, MOONRISE project manager at LZH.

By Tony Ho Tran

A swarm of tiny robots might just save your life one day—or at least that’s the idea with a new type of tiny robot that can be 3D printed all at once.

In a new study published in Science today, a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles developed a new 3D printing method that can create working robots made from metamaterials (synthetic materials from elements not found in nature). The resulting machines, which the scientists have dubbed ‘meta-bots,’ are capable of moving, sensing, and navigating terrain all on their own.

The meta-bots are each roughly the size of a fingernail. The team believes that it has the potential for a number of different applications including exploring hazardous environments like collapsed buildings or other areas with rubble to aid in rescue efforts. They could even be built in smaller sizes to assist in medical procedures by delivering drug doses to specific sites in the body.

“We envision that this design and printing methodology of smart robotic materials will help realize a class of autonomous materials that could replace the current complex assembly process for making a robot,” Xiaoyu (Rayne) Zheng, a UCLA engineer and the study’s lead author, said in a press release.

Israel’s Nano Dimension uses an inkjet process to print living human tissue in 3D. Next step, a printed liver or heart?

It’s the stuff of science fiction: technology that can print a human organ. But the first step towards turning big-screen fantasy into everyday reality has been taken by Israel’s Nano Dimension,  which makes 3D printers.

Through a collaboration with another Israeli company, biotechnology firm Accellta of Haifa, Nano Dimension has been able to mix human stem cells into its 3D printer ink. When expelled through the more than 1,000 tiny nozzles of a Nano Dimension DragonFly 3D printer, the ink can form into human tissue.

While the technology is still at the proof-of-concept stage – and going from simple tissue to a full organ is a daunting and uncharted process – the possibilities for saving lives by “printing” a new liver or lung are staggering.