Russia to Design Space Station Section for 3D-Printing, Roscosmos Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos plans to design a space station section for additive manufacturing, according to a presentation given by Yuri Urlichich, the company's first deputy director-general, on Thursday at the "Additive Technologies. Expanding the Horizons" forum.

According to the presentation, additive printing technology, also known as 3D-printing, will make it possible to create objects of any complexity in zero gravity.

"To design a manufacturing section of a space station," the presentation reads.

The company also plans to create standards for 3D-printing at the orbit as well as augment existing printing technologies.

The presentation also mentions a possible use of lunar soil in printing.

3D printing is a process of creating objects by spreading an extremely fine layer of powder then sintering it with the laser then adding another layer of powder on top of a sintered layer and so on until the object is printed.

In February, the deputy director-general of Russia's Advanced Research Foundation said that the foundation was cooperating with Roscosmos on developing a 3D printer that would be tested at the International Space Station and used for manufacturing parts of bases on Mars and the Moon.