Here is today’s mad utopian vision: build space stations by launching automated fabricators into orbit.
A seemingly website-less company called Made in Space “wants to launch 3-D printers into orbit and use them to make parts for spacecraft and space stations, which would be assembled in zero gravity.” They would do this using “thin layers of ‘feedstock,’ which can be metal, plastic or a variety of other materials.” Even better, when parts break down, they’d simply be recycled back into future printed components: “Rather than shuttling a replacement part from Earth to a space station, 3-D printers aboard the station could simply crank out whatever’s needed. And the broken part could be recycled into feedstock.”
My inner twelve year old just exploded in joy. I don’t care if it’s feasible, I want my orbital makerbot constructing space seraglios.
If you’re very nice, I might even let you aboard.
