India's
infamous Godmen, known for the juggling and cheap tricks they perform
to cheat and deceive ignorant faithful, are often known to perform
tricks like producing holy ash (according to them) from the palm of
their hands. Many years ago, I remember having viewed a stage drama
in which a fake Godman, who actually is a cheater and a criminal,
was shown producing a gold ring from this air. The scene used to be
done very effectively on the stage.
Off
course, most of the rationally thinking people know that these so
called divine tricks by these Godmen are actually cheap juggler
tricks. Any average magician can easily carry out these tricks
producing a solid object from nowhere.
America's
National Space agency NASA has just managed to bring this magic trick
to reality and have managed to produce a 3 dimensional solid object
from nowhere. Readers may not believe this, but it happens to be a
reality and a fact. What is even more surprising that this juggler
trick was performed not on earth but in space.
Readers
may be aware that the largest habitable artificial satellite
travelling in a low orbit (at an altitude of 220 miles) around earth
is the International Space Station (ISS). The first component of
this space station of modular structure was launched in 1998. The
station has been continuously occupied for 14 years since the
arrival of the first Expedition on November 2000. The station is
serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft and has been visited by
astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations. Astronaut Barry
Wilmore, who had gone to space station in September 2014 as part of
expedition 41, continued his stay on board of ISS, during tenure of
next or expedition 42 as a commander along with a team of 5 other
astronauts till March 2015.
Recently,
Barry Wilmore made a strange request to NASA headquarters back home
in USA. He badly needed a ratcheting socket wrench to fix up some
gear on board that needed this specialty tool. In normal course of
events, such a tool would have been sent by one of the visiting
spacecraft like Soyuz, which service the space station. This would
mean a long wait.
A
socket wrench is a type of wrench that has a socket attached at one
end, usually used to turn a fastener. In the most common type of
socket wrench, the ratcheting mechanism allows the nut to be
tightened or loosened with a reciprocating motion, without requiring
that the wrench be removed and refitted after each turn.
Since
Barry Wilmore needed to have this tool rather urgently, NASA decided
to create the tool on board of ISS, which had a appliance on board
just needed to the job. On board ISS is a 3 D printer that can create
an object designed in virtual reality. This printer, made by a US
company “Made in space,” has been custom designed for precisely
this type of work loads. In November, the printer had manufactured
the first 3-D printed object in space — a replacement part for
itself.
According
to the company; The Zero-G
Printer is the first 3D printer designed to operate in zero gravity.
Launched into orbit on September 21, 2014, the printer was built
under a joint partnership between NASA MSFC and Made In Space.
Contracted as the “3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment,” this first
version of the Zero-G printer has ushered in the era of off-world
manufacturing.
NASA
went ahead and designed the tool in form of digital data files and
sent them to ISS by email. Once the digital file arrived on the ISS,
Barry Wilmore simply fed them to the printer and let it go. Printer
eventually churned out 20 separate parts, which were then assembled
into the exact wrench wanted by the astronauts and Barry Wilmore had
the exact tool in his hand. There was no waiting for the next service
visit of any spacecraft.
The
wrench printed by Barry had another distinction; it was that for the
first time an object designed on earth and sent in form of digital
data was printed out to create a 3 D object in space.
25th
December 2014
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