By Jason Dunn \u2014 Singularity Hub<\/p>\n
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One day everything in space will be made in space, and this will radically increase the potential for human space exploration.<\/p>\n
I recently read a novella that explores this very idea (see below for an excerpt). Cory Doctorow\u2019s \u201cThe Man Who Sold The Moon\u201d appears in Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future<\/em><\/a>, an anthology of hopeful, ambitious, technically-grounded science fiction stories set in the near future. In the story, a small team takes on the daunting mission of launching a machine to the Moon that collects lunar regolith (moon dirt) and 3D prints structural housing panels for a future settlement.<\/p>\n This idea is at the heart of a decades-old quest to create truly sustainable and Earth-independent space exploration. In the summer of 1980, a team at NASA Ames Research Center showed<\/a> a simple set of machines could be sent to the lunar surface to mine resources and replicate themselves.<\/p>\n