Lifeboat Foundation

By Jason Dunn — Singularity Hub

One day everything in space will be made in space, and this will radically increase the potential for human space exploration.

I recently read a novella that explores this very idea (see below for an excerpt). Cory Doctorow’s “The Man Who Sold The Moon” appears in Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, an anthology of hopeful, ambitious, technically-grounded science fiction stories set in the near future. In the story, a small team takes on the daunting mission of launching a machine to the Moon that collects lunar regolith (moon dirt) and 3D prints structural housing panels for a future settlement.

Continue reading “A 3D Printed Moon Base: Science Fiction or Science Fact?” »

Voxel8

Voxel8 has created the world’s first 3D electronics printer from the ground-up. Novel conductive materials and 3D printing technology from the Lewis Research Group at Harvard University. New software crafted for the Voxel8 printer called Project Wire by Autodesk.

The Voxel8 printer truly allows you to combine electronics with novel mechanical forms. Visit voxel8.co for more information. What would you print?

http://www.voxel8.co/

Quoted: “Legendary cyberculture icon (and iconoclast) R.U. Sirius and Jay Cornell have written a delicious funcyclopedia of the Singularity, transhumanism, and radical futurism, just published on January 1.” And: “The book, “Transcendence – The Disinformation Encyclopedia of Transhumanism and the Singularity,” is a collection of alphabetically-ordered short chapters about artificial intelligence, cognitive science, genomics, information technology, nanotechnology, neuroscience, space exploration, synthetic biology, robotics, and virtual worlds. Entries range from Cloning and Cyborg Feminism to Designer Babies and Memory-Editing Drugs.” And: “If you are young and don’t remember the 1980s you should know that, before Wired magazine, the cyberculture magazine Mondo 2000 edited by R.U. Sirius covered dangerous hacking, new media and cyberpunk topics such as virtual reality and smart drugs, with an anarchic and subversive slant. As it often happens the more sedate Wired, a watered-down later version of Mondo 2000, was much more successful and went mainstream.”

Read the article here >https://hacked.com/irreverent-singularity-funcyclopedia-mondo-2000s-r-u-sirius/

Luke Thu — conversations.nokia.com

Like many young stargazers, James Parr was ten years old when he first had fantasies of going to space.

Thirty years later, the stars have aligned and James is finally realizing his dream. But not as you’d imagine. Working with Microsoft and the biggest names in space exploration, James has created the first ever 3D-printed automated robotic observatory.

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by Bridget Butler Millsaps — 3Dprint.com

It’s not every day that you have the FAA looking over your shoulder while you are designing a complex part for 3D printing. It’s also not every day that you have to design a part which, no matter how basic it might sound, must be failsafe, for not only flying, but also in working seamlessly with all the other rigorously tested parts of an aircraft that is going to fly all over the world on charitable medical missions.

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Published by Sandra Helsel — inside3dprinting.com

(3Ders.org) — Researchers at the Intelligent Motion Laboratory at Indiana University developed a method to create inexpensive, table-top-sized robot models called ROBOPuppets to provide teleoperate input control to full-sized robots. RoboPuppet is a 3D-printed miniature replica of the target robot, which uses encoders embedded in the joints to translate the user’s physical action with the puppet into the motion on the robot. The kinesthetic mode of operation is familiar to those who played with action figures and dolls as children. It lets users control complex motions in a cheap and more intuitive way than traditional joysticks or joint level control.

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By Michael Molitch-Hou — 3D Printing Industry

Kai Parthy, inventor of the original Laywoo-D3 and Laybrick filaments, is back with an exciting new material for desktop filament fabricators. An extension of his foam PORO-LAY line, Kai has developed a sponge filament he calls Layfomm. Though objects printed with Layfomm are pretty ordinary and stiff, upon initial printing, when they’re dipped in water for two to three days, they become soft and flexible.

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By Michael Molitch-Hou — 3D Printing Industry

Now on Indiegogo, the foldable Pocket3DPrinter is only in the conceptual stages. It hypothesizes the use of an FDM style extrusion technique, like you might see on a MakerBot or an Ultimaker, but, instead of heating up plastic filament, the project’s creator, Steven Middleton, proposes using a UV projecting LED light to harden curable resin onto the build platform. By doing so, Middleton believes that the 3D printer is made more portable, as there will be no need to wait for the extruder to heat up and cool down before printing. For even more portability, the machine would be battery powered and managed via Bluetooth through a smartphone app. Below are some of the Pocket3DPrinter’s possible specs:

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Written By: Jason Dorrier — Singularity Hub

If space is the final frontier, we pilgrims have a lot to learn. To date, we’ve rarely ventured far beyond the thin envelope of Earth’s atmosphere. Why? Because we can’t yet survive long in space without dangling a supply line into the gravity well.

Last weekend, however, we took a step that may prove crucial to foregoing our Earthly dependence. Made In Space—a Singularity University company dreamed up at SU’s 2010 graduate studies program—launched the first 3D printer into space.

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