Page 82 - International Space Station Benefits for Humanity, 3rd edition.

Experiments within the CubeLabs are fully automated
and designed to require minimal human intervention,
which is a plus, as crew time is highly valuable. In 2014, the ISS Additive
Real-time or near real-time data can be sent from the Manufacturing Facility (AMF)
CubeLabs to customers on the ground, allowing them
to stay up-to-date on their experiment’s progress. produced the first three-dimensional
Additionally, the TangoLabs come with several standard (3-D) printed object in space.
kits, including cell culturing as well as plant and bacterial
growth kits. TangoLabs are a general research platform
and are not built for any specific use, making them
highly customizable.
“You can build a lot of the analytics and environmental
controls into each individual CubeLab, which allows us print in space, thus paving the way to future long-term
to have a plant growth study next to a bacteria study,” space expeditions and the possibility of manufacturing
explains Twyman Clements, cofounder and CEO of tools in orbit.
Space Tango. “A lot of the ‘smarts’ are inside the Made In Space is an American company with more
cube itself.” than 45 employees currently operating the 3-D
In February 2017, Space Tango’s first customer printing (AMF) onboard the space station. In early 2011,
payloads, including experiments from commercial Made In Space was a small company with a 3-D
and educational organizations, were transported to Printing Lab housed inside the NASA Ames Research
the ISS on SpaceX CRS-10. Because of the successes Center. By 2012, the company had conducted multiple
of these projects, a second facility was launched to the suborbital flights on NASA’s reduced-gravity aircraft,
ISS on SpaceX CRS-12 in August 2017, doubling the and received more than $1 million in NASA Phase I & II
number of experiments Space Tango can support on SBIRs for the development of the AMF. By 2013, NASA
a single mission. announced plans for the “3-D printing in Zero-G”
technology demonstration onboard the space station.
Because many researchers do not have experience in The demonstration of the Made In Space 3-D printing
spaceflight R&D, Space Tango works with customers was a successful first step toward establishing an
to modify ground-based experiments to meet the on-demand machine shop in space—a critical enabling
demands of the space environment and make R&D component for deep-space crewed missions and
objectives technically feasible. Space Tango’s CubeLabs
make experimenting in space more accessible and
affordable to customers interested in harnessing the
power of space to advance their R&D on Earth.
Researchers may be experts in their fields of study,
but most are unaccustomed to the different challenges
presented by working in microgravity. Procedures as
simple as pouring liquids into a beaker must be altered
to work on the ISS. Space Tango uses its team’s
expertise in spaceflight R&D to adjust experiments
to microgravity and fit them within the CubeLab.

Made In Space—Building a Better
Optical Fiber
In 2014, the ISS Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF)
produced the first three-dimensional (3-D) printed object
in space. Traditionally, it can take months or even years,
depending on the launch resupply schedule, to get
equipment to space. For exploration missions, resupply A printed product floats in front of the AMF
from Earth may be impossible. Enabled by a series of on the ISS.
eight NASA SBIR contracts, commercial facility provider Image credit: NASA
Made In Space, Inc. became the first company to 3-D

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