Tampa Bay natives behind the first 3-D printing in space

Jason Dunn and Aaron Kemmer's story begins in Florida. They hope it ends in outer space.The Tampa Bay natives want to expand the boundaries of human existence by revolutionizing interstellar exploration.They are starting with a printer. On. Nov. 25, Dunn and Kemmer helped produce the first three-dimensional printed object in space. They made a plastic casing for a part of a 3-D printer they developed for NASA and dispatched to the International Space Station this year.The casing is just a little thing with the logo of Kemmer and Dunn's company, Made in Space, on the front. The big deal is how it was made. Technicians and engineers on Earth sent an email to the printer in space, essentially instructing it to print the part."It's important to humanity in a way," Dunn said. "Because this is the first time we've ever manufactured anything off of planet Earth, anything useful at least."Manufacturing is one step toward an eventuality that Kemmer and Dunn, both 29, believe they can help make happen in their lifetime: human life on other planets. One of the biggest hurdles, according to Kemmer, is that "space has a supply chain problem." Until now, astronauts have had to pack and haul supplies — a costly, cumbersome and time-consuming process. To live in space, Kemmer said, humans must make what they need out there, in the black. "When you look at history," he said, "we move to places where we can live off the ground."• • •Let's start there — terra firma, Holiday and Clearwater in sunny Florida.Dunn, a precocious boy, watched rockets blast off from Cape Canaveral. "Any time there was a night launch, I could see the little space shuttle star up in the sky," he recalled.He often ventured into the waters near his childhood home in Holiday. "I had my own boat, and I spent a lot of time exploring mangroves and remote islands and things like that — fishing and snorkeling," he said.About 20 miles away in Clearwater, Kemmer learned early to be resourceful with a Kool-Aid stand he ran on the sidewalk. "I would sell my Kool-Aid and I would have a team of my younger brothers working for me," he said. It was, he thinks, among the most efficiently run drink stands in the area.Dunn went to the University of Central Florida and became a rocket scientist. Kemmer bounced between majors at the University of Florida, eventually settling on a concentration in communication and leadership development. They met in 2010 at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley program that encourages people to tackle "humanity's grand challenges.""The two of us really cared a lot about space exploration," Dunn said. "We spent 10 weeks trying to look at how can we solve the problems with the space industry. Why aren't people living on other planets right now?"Kemmer, the CEO, and Dunn, the chief technology officer, helped found Made in Space in 2010. They won a few NASA contracts and set to work.• • •They hoped it would be easy. Just find a commercial 3-D printer and put it on the space station. A 3-D printer works a little like its ink-and-paper predecessors, but it can make three-dimensional objects. "The ink is now plastic, and we're melting it just like a hot glue gun out of a nozzle," Dunn said.But regular 3-D printers don't work without gravity. "Apparently gravity is needed to hold things in place — the belts and pulleys — and you're depositing really thin layers of melted plastic," Dunn said.After a battery of tests, Made in Space developed a product that not only worked in zero gravity, but could also operate on the moon or on the surface of Mars, Dunn said. NASA launched the printer in September. Ahead of schedule, the team made its first print in late November. Dunn, Kemmer and the Made in Space team sent the digital file from their office in California, and an astronaut aboard the space station collected the finished product."It's one of those rare moments in life where, as you're watching it happen, you're conscious of the fact that it is a historical moment," said Niki Werkheiser, project manager for the International Space Station 3-D printer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.By making the part for a 3-D printer, Kemmer said, his company took a step toward self-replication: the idea that a printer could be sent to space and create other printers from there.NASA owns Made in Space's first 3-D printer, but Dunn said the company has developed another it plans to send up early next year. The printer will have a place on the space station and will be owned by the Made in Space team. They will make it commercially available, so companies and researchers can conduct testing off of the planet."I think today that space is still somewhat of a risk, somewhat of a danger, and we need to make it so that going to space isn't any riskier than getting on an airplane and going across the country," Dunn said.Kemmer, for his part, wants to live in the last frontier. "I'm a young guy; I think I've got plenty of time," he said. "And what I'd like to do is actually die off planet Earth." Contact Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8804. Follow @ZackSampson.

Tampa Bay natives behind the first 3-D printing in space

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