It's a Thursday night and you’re bored, so you launch an app on your smartphone. A crisp view of Earth as seen from space pops up, and you start flying around. Moments later, your friend logs on and joins you in formation. But this isn’t a video game – you’re piloting a real spacecraft.
This vision is pie in the sky for now, but it could be possible in the near future thanks to efforts bringing manufacturing and consumer services to orbit, enabled by 3D printing, robotics and virtual reality. Welcome to 400 kilometres up, where business is booming.
“We want people to be thinking they can actually use space. It’s not just for governments and billion-dollar companies,” says Brad Kohlenberg of Made In Space, a Californian firm building 3D printers for use in orbit.
“We want people to think they can actually use space. It’s not just for billion-dollar companies”
Made In Space is on the crest of a wave of private companies trying to get consumer space technology off the ground. They launched their first printer to the International Space Station last year, where NASA used it to print a wrench from a design that was emailed from Earth. Later this year, the company plans to launch a more advanced printer that will allow anyone on the ground to build things in orbit.
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