3d printing has revolutionized the way wemake stuff. and the technology is evolving -- fast! advances in 3d printing have made it possibleto print things we never could before -- like tiny batteries and super effective water filters. and we might even be able to use 3d printingto colonize other worlds, starting with the
medical uses of 3d printing, moon. 3d printing is sometimes known as additivemanufacturing, which should give you some idea of how it works: you program a 3d printer with a design, andit builds a thing according to that design,
generally by stacking layers of material ontop of each other. but one problem that’s come up is that it’shard to 3d print on a small scale. if you’re printing something that’s, say,5 hundredths of a millimeter wide, every fraction of a millimeter counts. but 3d printers are getting more precise allthe time. in 2013, a team of american researchers managedto 3d print extra-efficient batteries the size of a grain of sand. to make their miniature batteries, the teamcreated a special kind of ink with lithium-ion nanoparticles in it.
if that sounds familiar, it’s because lithium-ionbatteries are in almost everything you use, from your smartphone to your hybrid car. and like all batteries, they work using electrodesand an electrolyte. a current passes between the electrodes byflowing through the electrolyte, providing electrical power. so engineers used that special ink in a custom-made3d printer, which printed stacks of electrodes, each thinner than a human hair. then they put the stacks in an electrolytesolution, to provide a medium for the current to pass through.
and that was it! they had a very tiny battery, that turnedout to be just as efficient as the kind you can buy at the store. these new nano-printed batteries may soonwind up in microscopic technologies, like miniature cameras, tiny medical implants,and adorable little nanobots. another new invention that only exists becauseof 3d printing? better water filters. water filters use membranes that trap particlesyou don’t want, along with potentially dangerous microbes.
the problem is, most membranes get cloggedup pretty easily. but in 2014, a company in singapore developeda 3d printed membrane using an ink made out of titanium dioxide, which develops the abilityto kill microbes when it’s exposed to uv light, like from the sun. so when water passes through the uv-exposedmembrane, any dangerous microbes die. and the membrane also breaks down organiccompounds, so they don’t stick around and clog it up. so scientists are using 3d printing to developall kinds of new ideas here on earth. but it’s also helping us explore space.
in fact, there’s a 3d printer on the internationalspace station right now! and in 2014, astronauts used it to 3d printobjects in space for the first time ever. most common objects are printed out of a kindof plastic, often referred to as resin. and nasa engineers wanted to see if thingslike tools could be printed in space -- if so, crew members could print whatever theyneeded on the fly. but researchers weren’t sure if weightlessnesswould affect the strength of resin. so the iss crew conducted a test, and printedan ordinary ratchet wrench and 19 other objects, like containers and spare parts, on boardthe station. when the stuff they printed was sent backto earth for testing, researchers found that
the plastic was as strong as plastic 3d printedon the ground. which means 3d printing can be used on thespace station and on future long-term missions, allowing crew members to print any replacementparts they need. and speaking of long-term missions: the europeanspace agency is planning to use 3d printing to help build a colony on the moon. their plan -- which is still in the very earlieststages -- is to first send robots to the moon to collect raw material: the lunar regolith,aka moon rocks. then, giant 3d printers would be sent to usethe regolith to make things like tools and even entire buildings.
it might sound like something out of a sciencefiction novel, but researchers are already developing designs for printable structuresthat would protect against radiation and small meteoroids. to prove that it’s possible, they’ve alreadyprinted a 1.5 metric ton building block made
of synthetic regolith. so the first moon colonists might live andwork ... in a 3d printed town! thanks for watching this episode of scishow,and thanks to emerson for sponsoring it. if you want to keep getting smarter with us,just go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe.
