(November 5, 2014 at 11:40 am)FifthElement Wrote: We are at the dawn of the new age
3D printing is slowly but surely taking over.
As all other technologies it will become more sophisticated and in some time the idea of self-replicating machines will become reality
Imagine a spaceship/probe which is capable of landing on the destination planet (we'll probably start with our Moon as testing ground) and use planet/moon resources to build multiple replicas of itself via 3D printing and those replicas soon after would be leaving the planet in question in search for another planet where they can build more of them self, and so on, and so on ...
According to some calculations they would self-replicate through entire Milky Way galaxy in about 1 million years.
Looks to me like a feasible way to explore the galaxy, more so then any other way imagined till now
What do you guys think about it ?
3D printing something used material fabricated, refined and enhanced by large industrial plants at the end of a planet spanning raw material extraction and material refinement supply chain. Every stage of this planet spanning raw material extraction and refinement supply chain in turn exists at the end of its own planet wide tooling, transportation and energy supply chain.
Pretty soon you can see how even the most basic 3D printing requires a planet spanning web of infrastructure.
It would be a feat to create a small space lander that could replicate such a material extraction and refinement supply web so as to be able to print up a copy of itself.
Quite likely the time between when the lander (more likely a horde of landers) touch down and when the first locally fabricated successor takes off would be scored or hundred of years. In between the lander horde would have to progressively and laboriously build up an material extraction and refinement industry. Initially the lander horde would have to rely on supplies from home planet, just like a manned colony.
