Dr Gilles Bailet, of the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering, has been awarded a patent for a new system which overcomes the challenges of 3D printing in zero-gravity.
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00:00We are trying to make space sustainable.
00:06As the cost of flushing things in space is decreasing,
00:10we are seeing more and more things sent in space,
00:12and this is not sustainable.
00:14Our idea is to be able to manufacture things directly in space
00:18using 3D printing,
00:20and by doing so we open the door to recycling in space
00:23and to have a full circular economy.
00:25In space we can manufacture many things,
00:27from drugs to novel antennas.
00:30In our group we are focusing on enhancing existing spacecraft,
00:35so 3D printing radiators, antennas, solar panels.
00:39Thanks to the support of IA, we are able to do parabolic flights,
00:44so it's what we also call the Vomit Comet,
00:47where we have a plane doing roller coasters in the air,
00:52and at the top of every parabola
00:55we have 20 seconds of microgravity,
00:57which duplicates the conditions that we have in space,
01:00where the gravity does not affect the motion of objects anymore,
01:04and we are able to demonstrate our two new technologies with this test.
01:09Seeing the technology actually working perfectly as I designed it
01:14was really breathtaking, a lot of emotions,
01:17and now we know that our technology is working in a space environment,
01:21and we'll be able to do the first demonstration in space
01:24in the next milestone of our technology development.