ESA / Foster + Partners

The European Space Agency and a consortium of industry professionals investigated the feasibility of using 3-D printing to build a lunar base.

By Mike Wall
Space.com

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — Technological advances are bringing down the cost of space research and exploration, with 3-D printing poised to provide a transformative leap, NASA chief Charles Bolden says.

During a tour of the space agency's Ames Research Center here Friday, Bolden lauded the scientific potential of PhoneSats, tiny and inexpensive spacecraft based on off-the-shelf smartphones. And he singled out 3-D printing as a promising key enabler of humanity's push out into the solar system.

"As NASA ventures further into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending humans to Mars, we'll need transformative technology to reduce cargo weight and volume," Bolden said. "In the future, perhaps astronauts will be able to print the tools or components they need while in space." [10 Amazing 3D-Printed Objects]

The future of spaceflight?
As proof that satellites don't have to be huge and expensive to observe our planet, Bolden pointed to the success of the Ames-led PhoneSat demonstration mission, which launched three modified Google Nexus One smartphones into orbit last month.

The three cubesats — known as Alexander, Graham and Bell — lifted off April 21 on the maiden flight of the private Antares rocket, which the Virginia-based firm Orbital Sciences Corp. will use to blast unmanned cargo missions toward the International Space Station for NASA.

All three PhoneSats operated normally until re-entering the atmosphere as expected on April 27, with two of them even beaming down pictures of Earth from space.

Space.com / Mike Wall

Sarah Hovsepian, manager of the SpaceShop fabrication lab at NASA's Ames Research Center, gives NASA chief Charles Bolden a ceremonial cubesat during his tour of Ames on Friday. To the left of Bolden is Rep. Mike Honda, D.-Calif.; to the right is Ames Director Pete Worden.

"This is off-the-shelf technology used to do what would normally be called Earth science, looking back at Earth and giving us that capability for a very inexpensive price," Bolden said.

"The Phonesats themselves were much less than $10,000 apiece," he added. "And if we can get the cost per pound on the launch to go down, we'll be OK."

During his tour of Ames, Bolden also got a look at a prototype 3-D printer built by the company Made in Space, which is slated to launch one of its machines to the International Space Station next year in the first test of off-Earth manufacturing.

NASA's interest in 3-D printing is strong. The agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for example, is partnering with Made in Space on the space station project. And NASA recently funded the development of a prototype "3-D pizza printer" that could help feed astronauts on long space journeys, such as the 500-day trek to Mars.

Budget problems
While NASA is trying to bring the cost of spaceflight down over the long haul, the agency is dealing with  financial problems in the short term.

The widespread federal cutbacks known as the sequester, which came into effect on March 1, reduced NASA's budget for the current year by nearly $900 million, to $16.8 billion. NASA has been weathering the storm so far, but it cannot continue to do so for much longer, Bolden said.

If the sequester continues into next year, for example, the agency's funding will be further cut to $16.1 billion, Bolden has said. That's a far cry from the $17.7 billion President Barack Obama set aside for NASA in his fiscal year 2014 budget request.

"If we stay under sequester — if the president and Congress are not able to come together and do what's absolutely necessary for the nation and solve the sequester problem — all bets are off," Bolden said.

Ames Director Pete Worden said the center has managed to avoid furloughing employees by deferring building maintenance and cutting back on travel, among other measures. But he agreed with Bolden that such stopgap solutions could only last so long.

"We can get through this year, but if this continues, it's going to be really tough," Worden said. "It's really critical next year that the president's program is enacted, because that'll enable us to really go forward."

Bolden's time at Ames wrapped up a three-day tour of NASA's California research centers. He visited the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base last Wednesday and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena a day later.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

• The 10 Weirdest Things Created By 3D Printing
• 3D Printed Food Development Funded By NASA | Video
• 8 Creepiest 3D Printed Objects

Copyright 2013 Space.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A customized artificial jawbone built with a 3-D printer has allowed an 83-year-old woman to continue breathing, chewing, and chatting away, a team of European scientists announced.

The first-of-a-kind jaw reconstruction was accomplished with a printing technique called laser melting where layers of a metallic powder are built up and fused together with a laser.

In this case, the powder is titanium. Once built, the entire artificial jawbone was coated with a type of ceramic that made it compatible with body tissue.

University of Hasselt

A researcher holds up a replica of a lower jawbone that was created with 3-D printer that was implanted in an 83-year-old woman.

The design, production and processing of the implant was done digitally in just two hours. Other implant building methods can take up to two days, the University of Hasselt in Belgium noted. 

The rapid construction technique allowed the team to address a rapidly progressing infection in the woman's lower jaw that required complete removal of the bone in order to retain an open airway.

They decided to go with the 3-D printed jawbone for the sake of speed and functionality. Other options would have led to either a non-functional lower jaw or required a lengthy surgery and recovery time.

During surgery, the patient's deteriorating jawbone was removed and replaced with the custom implant. One day after the operation, she had normal function and was able to talk and swallow.

The completed implant weighs about 107 grams, which is around 30 grams heavier than a natural bone, the team reported. The difference, they said, is manageable for the patient.

In a statement, team member Jules Pouken from the University of Hasselt  likened the feat to man's first step on the moon: "A cautious, but firm step."

The team explained the procedure during a press conference in Belgium on Feb. 3. More images and details are available from the University of Hasselt.

Only time will tell whether 3-D printing will revolutionize the medical profession, but this feat marks rapid advancement in a field that seemed futuristic just a few months ago.

More on 3-D printing technology:

• 3-D printers may soon fix broken bones
• Robot spider crawls out of 3-D printer
• The wild possibilities of printing food
• Chocolate printer crafts sculptures from cocoa

John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.