Slipping the bonds of gravity is not cheap, so NASA has to account for every bit of mass it sends into space. Once a mission is underway, the crew of any manned mission needs to be able to keep things in working order, which means replacement parts and equipment are usually part of the mass that gets shot into the heavens. However, what happens if you need an extra thingamabob, but NASA only packed extra whatsits? That’s a problem NASA hopes to fix by perfecting 3D printing in space, and now astronauts have successfully created the first 3D printed part on the International Space Station.
The supermassive black hole is 40 million times as massive as the sun and powers a quasar that existed 700 million years after the Big Bang.
The asteroid zoomed by Earth at a perfectly safe distance of around 1.8 million miles (2.9 kilometers).
Images show surprise changes to the spacecraft as it interacted with the atmosphere.
A step forward towards 3D printing objects.