Space: 3D Printing Rockets
We are seeing a ton of advancement in the space race. With so many different projects on tap, whether it is getting to the Moon or Mars, billions are pouring into the space.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are two figures leading the charge. Both have companies that are pushing breakthroughs. It is reported that Bezos is unloading $1 billion of Amazon stock a month to fund his space exploration company.
SpaceX, of course, is Musk's endeavor and is garnering most of the headlines. One of the biggest innovations is the reusable rocket. Musk is looking to turn a rocket around in 24 hours. This will help to further drive down costs while increasing the traffic that can be sent up.
The most famous in the game are not the only ones who are making headway. There are innovations coming from every corner of the sector.
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Relativity is looking to carve out a niche in the arena by turning to 3D printing. The company is seeking to leverage this technology to produce much cheaper rockets. Price is still much of the driving factor in the space race and over the next decade, usage will skyrocket as prices plummet.
Here is a couple videos showing what the company is doing.
One of the benefits of 3D printing is that it can manufacture products using a lot less parts. For Relativity, this means producing rockets with 100 times less the parts than are normally used. This is a major advancement in and of itself. It is, however, just the beginning.
The company believes it can get that number down to one.
If a move like this can be done, the cost of new rockets will drop at an exponential rate. Musk's reusable rocket technology means that costs are already dropping a great deal. New rocket manufacturing is still rather expensive though.
For the goals of the space racers to be achieved, prices need to come down a great deal more. The past 5 years saw a lot of progress in this area which is helping things along.
What makes progress even faster is the fact that, for every company we are aware of, there are hundreds of startups working on other projects. Some of these will end up having breakthroughs that make a significant impact.
Ultimately, the biggest payoff to space research is what takes place on Earth. Many of the discoveries in areas such as the materials sciences are applied to products developed right here on this planet.
The next decade is going to see a ton of innovation out of this area. The benefits, if all goes well, are going to be enormous.
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