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AT: MarsSquo solvesSquo solves – 3D printingGreat Falls Tribune, 15 Great Falls Tribune, “3-D printers could lead to Mars colonization,” The Great Falls Tribune, 5/30/15, http://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/2015/05/31/printers-lead-mars-colonization/28134229/ // IS Imagine being an astronaut stranded in space with a damaged spaceship and having no proper tools to be able to fix your ship. But wait, you have a 3-D printer and can easily just print off whatever parts you need. Wrench, screws, you name it! After fixing your spaceship, maybe you’re in the mood for some pizza so just request some, and in a bit your 3-D printer will have it ready. The whole thing sounds a bit futuristic right? Well, leave it to NASA to take a step forward to make this happen. This 3-D printer was installed in November and has been put to the test several times since then. NASA is further exploring and developing this extraordinary idea to one day, hopefully be able to print food in space. This has already been used on Earth to print a variety of foods including chocolate and pizza. The printer powdered food also has a very long shelf life, which is necessary for long voyages that can take many years. How does it work? Well, this isn’t your typical printer. Inside the printer are cartridges, but instead of holding ink of varying colors like a usual printer, this printer’s cartridges hold oils, powdered food, proteins and different nutrients. The ingredients are mixed below, where the robot-like printer eventually assembles it all. Once complete, the food is baked on the printer’s heated surface. A detailed video of exactly how this is done can be found on YouTube by searching “NASA food printer.” How tools such as ratchets, screws and other pieces are made is explained in this quote from NASA: “On Nov. 24, ground controllers sent the printer the command to make the first printed part: a faceplate of the extruder’s casing. This demonstrated that the printer can make replacement parts for itself. The 3-D printer uses a process formally known as additive manufacturing to heat a relatively low-temperature plastic filament and extrude it one layer at a time to build the part defined in the design file sent to the machine.” While this idea is nowhere near flawless, it is a start for a simpler way for astronauts to obtain whatever they need without having to wait months, or simply do without. NASA is currently planning to send people to Mars in 2020 and with this technology — hopefully a bit more developed by then — it will make this trip all the more possible for the astronauts going. The catch for this trip? It’s a one-way flight, which means this is also the start of human settlement outside Earth. Very risky, but the idea in itself is also very exciting, which is why 200,000 people have already volunteered. This quote from the website mars-one.com discusses the possible risks a venture to Mars could involve: “Human space exploration is dangerous at all levels. After more than fifty years of humans traveling from Earth to space, the risk of space flight is similar to that of climbing Mount Everest. Mars is an unforgiving environment where a small mistake or accident can result in large failure, injury, and death. Every component must work perfectly. Every system (and its backup) must function without fail or human life is at risk.” While Mars is still a ways out, this printer that makes tools, pizza and chocolate is a stepping stone, and, if we’re lucky, signals the possible start of human civilization on another planet. These are amazing examples of how much technology is changing and moving forward. Who would have guessed any of this would have been possible even a decade ago? Mars col failsMars colonization can’t be independentBrandt, 7 David Brandt, The Hard SF, arcticles focusing on delineating science from science fiction, “Can Space Colonization Guarantee Human Survival?” 5/10/07, http://www.hardsf.org/IssuSpac.htm // IS To consider how well space colonization is likely to solve our problems we need to ask what the time-scales of sustainable, independent space colonies are. If, after disaster strikes Earth, Earth is still able to supplement the needs of space colonies, then those space colonies aren't necessarily essential to continuing the human race. We have to ask when space colonies would be functioning without need of any assistance from Earth. Truly independent space colonies must not simply provide bare nutrition, air, heat, and habitat repair for 100 years. They should have a non-traumatizing environment with enough people to protect against dangerous levels of inbreeding – able to last and progress indefinitely. There will also be a minimum number of people required for any space colony in order to provide needed manpower in various occupations (one person with multiple occupations doesn’t help if you need two of those occupations in different places at the same time). How does that compare to the time-scales of threats from climate change, environmental crisis, nuclear / bio weapons and accidents, possible nanotech weapons or accidents, overpopulation, etc.? We also have to consider threats to the global economy, since an economic collapse would presumably at least interrupt efforts towards establishing space colonies. Economic crises also increase risks of war, which could have apocalyptic consequences. Even assuming the ultimate solution of human survival is space colonization, we may need to find a way to extend the lifespan of human civilization and economy on Earth in order to have time to accomplish sustainable space colonization. Consider the possible habitats. Space stations in orbit around Earth or at L5 have little natural resources at their location other than solar energy. The Moon has no atmosphere, a limited amount of water at best, which part of the Moon has access to solar energy varies during the month, and it's not considered one of the solar system's better sources of minerals. Venus is extremely hot, the atmosphere is dangerous and with the cloud cover I'm not sure how practical solar energy would be at the surface. Mars has too little atmosphere and accessible water is questionable, etc. Some of the outer planets' moons may have enough ice and raw materials, but are very cold, lack usable atmospheres and get limited solar energy. And so on. We may be able to establish bases at some of these places in a realistically short amount of time, but not independent ones. Any colony that wants to get resources from post-apocalyptic Earth will need to have spaceships that can land on Earth and later achieve escape velocity from Earth while carrying cargo without help from Earth. Otherwise, the needed resources may not be available from a single astronomical body. That could require longer-distance travel between bodies - whether that's between asteroids, between moons, between planets or some other combination. Significant space travel ability may be essential. A colony would need an industrial base capable of extracting and refining raw materials, and making useful things from them. 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