MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts returning to Earth tested a 3D printer during their expedition aboard the International Space Station (ISS), printing 19 samples, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev told a post-flight press conference hosted by TASS on Monday.
"We began to print before our descent. We made 19 different samples and all of them were very successful, including structural elements and spades, and we printed a Gagarin bust, chess pieces and emblems of the universities which participated in the experiment," Artemyev said, adding that Tomsk University was among these higher educational institutions.
The cosmonauts had no possibility to test the 3D printer at first as there was no permission for work with the material required to print items but approval was issued for its use in the process of the flight, the cosmonaut said.
"We even made a technical item. A plug of our micro-drill broke down and we immediately carved out this item from the printed sample and it came in handy in the drill’s repair," Artemyev said.
The 3D printer was delivered to the ISS aboard the Progress MS-20 spacecraft in June for experimentation. The experiments focused on practicing additive technologies for the production of items from polymer materials in outer space. In the future, the use of these technologies will help cosmonauts in near-Earth orbital stations to make necessary items and tools directly in outer space, without waiting for their delivery by spacecraft from Earth.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Artemyev, who was also a TASS reporter aboard the orbital outpost, and his teammates Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov returned to Earth in a descent capsule of the S.P. Korolyov (Soyuz MS-21) spacecraft on September 29. The cosmonauts stayed aboard the ISS from March 18. Currently, the Russian cosmonauts are undergoing a three-week rehabilitation period after their flight at the Star City in the Moscow Region.