Gadgetory

building a spacecraft is tricky work after all it is rocket science to help with the design process NASA is borrowing from a popular tech trend space shop is our attempt to take the best practices and lessons learn from what we call the maker community trying to take that spirit of entrepreneurship and bring it into NASA space shop is a newly opened workshop for engineers at NASA Ames Research Center filled with state-of-the-art equipment there's a laser cutter for sheet metal in wood allows us to rapidly cut very complex geometric shapes we've got the traditional drill presses and band saws and all the other things you would expect in kind of a high school class machine shop and a few things you wouldn't expect like these 3d printers which engineers can use to improve their designs if being on a television or a computer monitor is one thing but seeing it in real life and seeing how its put together really can be highly impactful to the design and help us make it better cheaper more efficient than you otherwise would the tech holds so much potential that nASA has commissioned a company to build a 3d printer that can be launched into space if you're going to explore Mars or work on station or just go somewhere far out on the planet Earth you need to bring your own materials then you really create a sustainable method of constructing a new habitat a brave new world where you can just print what you need when you need it in Mountain View California I'm Sumi das cnet.com for CBS News