DailyDirt: Making It To Mars

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

A manned spaceship to Mars sounded like a logical next step in the 1970s after the first astronauts walked on the moon. But it's been a while since then, and we've sent a few robotic missions to the red planet recently to check out the place a bit more to see if it's really worth visiting. Maybe there isn't anything living on Mars now, but it certainly looks like there could have been conditions favorable for life there in the past. For space exploration fans, here are some interesting links on going to Mars, pointing out some of the challenges and technological advances that will help us get there (someday).

• There are a lot of stumbling blocks to getting to Mars -- such as choosing a rocket propulsion system, designing a human-friendly landing vehicle for the Martian surface, and various other problems related to bringing along everything people need to survive while still having enough fuel to do it. None of these problems sound impossible to engineer solutions for, but it'll be expensive. [url]
• NASA is working with 3D printers to create almost anything an astronaut would need while in space, without having to manufacture it before the long journey to Mars. One of the items that could be printed: pizza. (Yum. printed cheese.) [url]
• Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) has been collecting data on radiation levels that future astronauts might face on their journey to Mars -- and the exposure levels are nothing to sneeze at. NASA has defined some limits for its astronauts, and a trip to Mars could easily exceed those limits. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: 3d printers, astronauts, curiosity, manned missions, mars, radiation, space, space exploration
Companies: nasa

DailyDirt: Will Refill Cartridges For Food Printers Be Insanely Expensive?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The technology for 3D printing is getting better and cheaper all the time, but some folks think the "killer app" for these printing machines is in food preparation. Food printers aren't quite like Star Trek replicators just yet -- nor is there a way to eliminate the scarcity of food. Still, it'll be pretty cool when most households own an oven, stove, microwave oven... and a 3D food printer.

• Peter Thiel's philanthropic foundation has invested in Modern Meadow -- a company that will develop 3D bioprinting techniques for disrupting the current meat industry. Growing edible meat tissue without a farm could be more environmentally friendly, but one of the company's first goals is to just grow a 1-inch long piece of synthetic meat suitable for eating. [url]
• Cornell University has a food printing lab as part of its Fab@Home venture. This group has been working on printing food since 2007, and the researchers speculate that food printers could vastly reduce the time people spend preparing food. [url]
• Burritob0t is an open source project to create a Tex-Mex 3D printer, capable of generating tasty, custom burritos from extruding ingredients such as beans, rice, cheese and salsa onto a tortilla. Unfortunately, lettuce and chunky salsa aren't on this robot's menu -- but perhaps a meat paste could be added... [url]
• Chocolate lovers in the UK might want to thank researchers at the University of Exeter for creating a 3D printer that prints layers of chocolate. These developers want to create a website that anyone can print chocolate creations from -- but they'll probably need a really good Spam filter before they turn that feature on. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: 3d printers, burrito, burritob0t, chocolate, fab@home, food, peter thiel, replicator
Companies: modern meadow

The Pirate Bay Introduces 'Physibles': Napster For Physical Objects

from the kicking-the-hornet's-nest dept

A little over a year ago, we wrote about a fascinating paper from Public Knowledge with the splendid title, "It Will Be Awesome if They Don’t Screw it Up: 3D Printing, Intellectual Property, and the Fight Over the Next Great Disruptive Technology." It was written by Michael Weinberg, who recently recorded an interview going over much the same ground, if you prefer to listen rather than read. At the heart of both is the concern that once 3D printers become better and cheaper, and people start posting digital blueprints for commercially-available physical objects on the Net, then the manufacturing industries will recapitulate the war on sharing currently being waged by the music and film companies.

The output quality of 3D printers may still leave something to be desired, but the second part of the equation – freely swapping digital blueprints of objects without too much concern for any intellectual monopolies that are infringed upon – just became much easier thanks to The Pirate Bay:

We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.

That's probably true. Whether you will risk prosecution for doing so depends on how the post-SOPA legal landscape turns out.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+

Filed Under: 3d printers, file sharing, infringement, physical objects, sharing
Companies: the pirate bay

Is This The First DMCA Notice Over 3D Printer Plans?

from the begin-the-beginning dept

Just a few months ago, we highlighted how an upcoming battle in the copyright world will be coming from the rise in 3D printing, and the ability to simply print out new physical objects based on plans. And, as a few different folks have sent in, a site that collects and aggregates 3D printer plans called Thingiverse recently said that it's received its first ever DMCA takedown notice over a plan for a 3D printer object. To avoid liability, of course, the site complied. The specific DMCA takedown involved this 3D printable design of "the impossible triangle." Of course many people wondered if the guy claiming copyright on this, Dr. Ulrich Schwanitz, had a valid copyright on this, since the basic design he's talking about is just the famed Penrose triangle, and there are plenty of examples of people making it. On top of that, the DMCA takedown he issued was over people creating similar Penrose triangle 3D printer designs based on a challenge Schwanitz himself put out there, to see if anyone else could figure out how to model a printable Penrose triangle, and the winning results figured it out: Of course, the very fact that they figured it out themselves, without the specific instructions on how Schwanitz did it, lends even more credence to the claim that the takedown was completely bogus. They created these new versions not by copying his work, which was hidden away, but by understanding the basic physics and optics of how to create something that appears like the classic Penrose triangle. In fact, the creator of the 3D printable version above notes that his version was "based solely on the 1934 design painted by Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvard," which makes me wonder what sort of copyright claim Dr. Schwanitz actually has over the design.

In the end, Schwanitz decided to back down, rescinding the takedown notice and promising to release his version into the public domain (where it may have really been all along). Still, this definitely is an early warning sign of things to come. I'm sure it won't be long before we hear of more copyright issues related to 3D printers, and they'll be over issues a lot more serious than an optical illusion.

Filed Under: 3d printers, copyright, dmca, penrose triangle