User:ElectroXen
I am new to the RepRap scene, having attended a Makerbot workshop at Site3 coLaboratory, in Toronto, on June 9, 2011.
I am very interested to learn about machine-parts manufacture in microgravity environments, for a general purpose orbital factory, especially using selective laser sintering, of common ceramics and metals (eg: pyroxenes, iron, nickel, which not-only are very common on earth, but represent the bulk of material making up most asteroids). Making spacecraft parts from materials found in space would seem to be a really good idea, because lift-costs from earth are so high.
I find the goal of a fully replicable machine very compelling, and am keen to discuss ideas for printed electronics, replicable motors, actuators, sensors, and power supplies.
Some day, in the perhaps not-too-distant future, RepRap will be brought to nano scale. At that scale, parts nearly always exhibit self-assembly. Research appears to be advancing on multiple fronts: a lock-and-key model of the parts, so that the right parts always fit together in exactly the right way; a process of shape change as the parts come together; nano-scaffold, to grow parts onto larger structures; and designer-enzymes.
If you happen to be in Stockholm on June 19-23, 2011, please check the 12th conference of the european ceramic society for me, and tell me how this went.
- an architecture for self-replicating lunar factories
- modular unmanned orbital factory
- CubeSat
- Selective laser sintering of metal and ceramic compound structures
- project FOOF: Fusion on orbit fastest, with dense plasma focus
- Isotope separation in a vacuum‐arc centrifuge
- printed electronics and photovoltaics
- Starlite heat-resistant plastic
- world's smallest linear motor has submicron resolution
- making pencils with an extruder
