ratchet tool designed on earth uplinked & 3D printed in space by NASA

ratchet tool designed on earth uplinked & 3D printed in space by NASA
images courtesy of NASA and made in space

the first uplinked tool – a ratchet – 3D printed in space was successfully produced on the international space station (ISS). made in space’s engineer, noah paul-gin, designed the tool on autodesk and fabricated several iterations on an identical zero-G printer to the one sent to the ISS, at their ground station. afterwards, the file was uplinked to the crew by transmitting frequency from NASA’s earth-based laptop.

the 3D printed ratchet tool

this success demonstrates how objects can be designed on our planet and then manufactured on-demand in space, in order to help sustain human’s exploration in the universe. it also marks the first time a model was made without having the file saved on the SD card that arrived on the ISS with the original machine. the ratchet was formed, qualified, tested, and printed in less than a week – four hours of which was the fabricating time. this part, as well as the previous models will be returned to earth so that detailed observations considering the differences between extraterrestrial and earth-made versions can be analyzed.