Skip to main content

3D-printed pizza – a quick and easy meal for astronuats?

By
Snacking on a freshly-made pizza in outer space just got a whole lot closer thanks to Anjan Contractor's 3D pizza printer. Contractor, who won NASA's US$125,000 grant last year to create a 3D printer that could print food for astronauts on missions, has come out with a functional prototype.
The prototype prints the blocky pizza out in layers, as demonstrated in the video at the bottom of the page. While it's a tad messy, the end product, when cooked, looks fairly appetizing. Contractor plans to equip the 3D printer with food cartridges that last for 30 years.
Such a long shelf life is pretty much a necessity, since long-distance space missions could take several years. To make the pizza ingredients last, Contractor is investigating ways to remove all the moisture from them and reduce the proteins, carbs and nutrients into a powder form.
Contractor says that it only took 70 seconds to cook the pizza once it was printed out, in a comment on his Youtube page. If NASA implements the technology, astronauts will be able to get 3D-printed fast food in space, which should be a comfort, instead of having to rely solely on freeze-dried and canned foods.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solar car hits U.S. in round-the-world jaunt

By
Last October, the SolarWorld GT solar-powered car set out from Darwin, Australia on a drive around the world. It has since driven 3,001 kilometers (1,865 miles) across Australia, logged 1,947 km (1,210 miles) crossing New Zealand and been shipped across the Pacific Ocean. This Friday, it will embark on the U.S. leg of its journey, as it sets out across America from the University of California, Santa Barbara.   The SolarWorld GT is the result of a collaboration between solar panel manufacturer SolarWorld, and Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany. The four-wheeled, two-door, two-seat car gathers solar energy through photovoltaic panels built into its roof, with its solar generator offering a peak performance of 823 watts. Custom hub motors are located in both of the front wheels. The vehicle manages an average speed of 50 km/h (31 mph), with a claimed top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). In order to demonstrate that solar powered cars needn't be a radical...
Post a Comment
Read more

Biocomputer, Alternative To Quantum Computers

By
A team of international scientists from Canada, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden announced Friday that they had developed a model biological supercomputer capable of solving complex mathematical problems using far less energy than standard electronic supercomputers. The model “biocomputer,” which is roughly the size of a book, is powered by Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — dubbed the “molecular unit of currency.” According to description of the device, published in the  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , the biocomputer uses proteins present in all living cells to function. It uses a strategy similar to that of quantum computers, which use qubits — the quantum computing equivalents of bits — to perform “parallel computation,” wherein  computers are able to process information quickly and accurately by performing several calculations simultaneously, rather than sequentially. In the case of the biocomputer, the qubits are replaced with ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Qualcomm showcases the Snapdragon S4 ahead of Mobile World Congress

By
We’ve already heard about Qualcomm’s latest processor, the Snapdragon S4 , which will be quad-core and utilize LTE. Qualcomm took the time to give us some details ahead of Mobile World Congress. The new SoC now supports up to three cameras (two in the back for 3D and one front-facing), 20-megapixels, and recording video at 1080p (30fps). We can also expect zero shutter lag, 3A processing (autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance), and improved blink/smile detection, gaze estimation, range finding and image stabilization. Last but not least, it supports gesture detection/control, augmented reality , and computer vision (via Qualcomm’s FastCV). Hit the break for a couple of videos featuring image stabilization and gestures.
Post a Comment
Read more