Made In Space

MIS has been manufacturing in space since 2014 and is currently the only company in the world doing so. AMF enables customers to have their engineering designs digitally sent to space where parts are manufactured in a matter of hours, forgoing the need to use a rocket to transport the designs, saving costs and providing gains in overall efficiency. A great example of this on-demand capability is a print commissioned by NASA for the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) earlier this year. AMF fabricated radiation shields in various thicknesses to cover sensors used in testing the effects of radiation on-board BEAM, which is connected to the Earth-facing side of ISS. Another significant advantage is the ability to manufacture the structural frame of CubeSats. Once functional hardware components arrive to station, CubeSats are pieced together by astronauts before the devices are deployed. In the future, the process of launching the electronics to Station could be alleviated through the integration of printed electronics and pick and place capabilities into AMF or successor devices . Imagery from these two projects is available here.