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0 pointsyongjik9y ago0 comments

If Martian colonists can manufacture something using 3D printing, Earthlings can also do it, and probably a lot more cheaply, because all the necessary ingredient and parts (and even customers) are within forty light-millisecond, instead of ~20 light-minutes.

The economy is just not going to work.

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TaylorAlexander9y ago· 3 in thread

I'm having a hard time understanding this comment. That people on Earth can do it too does not detract from people on Mars doing it.

The parent comment isnt saying there will be an economy of building things on Mars and sending them to Earth, they're saying Mars can sustain itself without sharing an economy with Earth. Which I believe is true.

And for what it's worth, I'm actively working to build better robots with commodity 3D printers[1] and I hope to build self sustaining communities on Earth with 3D printed micro factories that produce all the goods humans need for survival.

I believe it is possible to make economically closed self sustaining communities. Both on Mars and on Earth. We've done it on Earth for a long time.

[1] https://github.com/tlalexander/Flutter-Scout

Pinckney9y ago

But why would a rational, self-interested person put up with great risk and expense to live in a small closed economy on Mars, when they could much more easily live in a small closed economy on earth? What's so great about Mars?

yongjikOP9y ago

At our current technological level, we didn't even succeed in building a self-sustaining biosystem when we threw money at it (as a research project): see Biosphere 2.

Self-sustaining community that can economically fund itself is out of reach even here on Earth. And, frankly, 3D printing isn't magic: it won't help that much. Can you 3D-print a glass window that can withstand 1 atm and has anti-UV coating?

TaylorAlexander9y ago

Sorry, where did I say 3D printing was magic? I'm a mechanical engineer who has had my 3D printer for 4 years. I just got a second one. I understand you can't print glass with a 3D printer. You can however, absolutely print critical parts of the machinery you would need to build a glass making system.

I'm talking 10-20 years out for having a self sustaining community that manufactures its own hard goods. But I believe it is possible and I'm working on making it real.

I'm not relying on magic.

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