Thoughts On Space Exploration
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- Category: Visions
- Last Updated: Monday, 16 January 2017 05:58
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Given that the idea of sending humans out in space has a following, there are also alternatives. Particularly now with the evolution of Virtual Reality we could send robots instead, the size of these will not matter, as cameras can be smaller than eyes and sensory input from robots could be scaled up, hence one could do remote exploration if we could achieve faster travel speeds. We could experience being near other planets and feel them, if we had material able to withstand conditions on some planets, the sensory input from such robots could be tuned to scale to an emotional sensory input to the explorer in VR and hence not be overwhelming, with the ability to tune the experience. It might of course also be virtually induced, we could literally make new planets for that matter, but for the matter of what we call actual space exploration, there are many thoughts on the subject.
We could consider remote working in space through robotics and VR/sensing/manipulation and of course both scale and shape of the other-end robotics or vessels of experience/manipulation could be approached with wild fantasy and imagination, not limited to standard sets of "reinventing the wheel" by making something human like in the other end either.
Work could be done to achieve harvesting/mining at other planets if we could get faster travel to other planets back and forth.
We could have new condos in space like in some semirecent sci-fi movies.
Advances In 3D Printing
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- Category: Visions
- Last Updated: Friday, 13 May 2022 02:02
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Additive Merged With Subtractive
The current trends lately spotted is building 3D objects by adding material, called Additive Printing. A next evolutionary step would be introducing a mix of both additive and subtractive construction.
Next Step Ideas
Intelligent materials with special properties
One could think that since some materials have properties as to change with heat / cold or in contact with eachother, changing shape or moving along constructs based on physics of smaller dimensions of size. Hence printing with MakerBots one could also create intelligent printed structures and components using particular materials that are not made just to have a static representation in the finished printed products.
A samples of such printing capabilities appearing: Stratasys printing with composite materials with predetermined visual and mechanical properties, while these machines are expensive one could possibly see an evolution towards home-printing capabilities and more affordable solutions coming. If materials were locally produced at key points across the globe one could create complex machinery, tools and more, hence alleviating huge amounts of traffic of commercial goods and reduce the emissions from heavy transport. The people in these businesses would then have to reconfigure towards another industry similar.
A "boxel" (the equivalent to a pixel for 3D printing) can be of different materials and substances too, another semi-recent example of such progress being presented:
[yt_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v-VXfrGGtkc" width="870" height="490" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]
Reactive Material Printing
If introducing reactional components (as f.ex. based on chemical or physical reactions during the printing process, one can f.ex. create complex working mechanisms and "living" material structures, where the materials used have reactive properties depending on f.ex. if the inner workings of said printed structure is designed to contain liquids or other later supplied materials generating reaction based mechanisms, hence printing intelligent objects.
Animating Printed Objects
One could f.ex. consider printing objects with the aim of these being able to produce changes to their structure based on water, electricity, air, etc. Any natural force which can be applied to said objects printed with the aim of being an animated sculpture, be it for art or for creation of other structures, as tools, as entertainment or as components of new machinery yet not seen.
[yt_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow5TgVTTUdY" width="870" height="490" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]
[yt_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN7BUKb0OIA" width="870" height="490" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]
"Claytronics"
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"Recycling Revolution"
One could make a grid and streaming mechanism for material sorting into different ligaments/materials for later use for local 3D printing, hence ensuring recycling locally, no more garbage bins and huge thrash-grounds, but rather a channeling system similar to our sewage system though areas towards either common ligament/material production for particular things, or local printing distribution logistics towards who which needs the material.
"3D Printed Circuitry"
[yt_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbm2SSql8V8" width="870" height="490" responsive="yes" autoplay="no"]
Read more here: Voxel8 Article on 3ders.org
Read more about recent 3D printers in this article: 3D Printer Guide at hubs.com