So-called
"asteroid mining" company Planetary Resources is built on the belief that asteroids and other objects in space are loaded with resources that we can take advantage of, both here on earth and as we begin to explore space in earnest. The essentially infinite supply of rocks floating through space, filled with valuable minerals that we'll eventually run out of on our home planet, sounds like a great resource to take advantage of. But the idea of mining, processing and building with alien metals also sounds like a massive and daunting undertaking.
But today, Planetary Resources is showing that it can do the last item on that list: building with metals not from this earth. At its booth at CES this year, the company is showing off a 3D-printed part that was made from a material not of this planet. Specifically, the company took material from a meteorite that landed landed in Argentina in prehistoric times, processed it and fed it through the
new 3D Systems ProX DMP 320 direct metal printer.
