August 3, 2016 – By Chris Newmarker
Russia’s state-run United Rocket and Space Corp. (Roscosmos) has inked a deal with a company called 3D BioprintingSolutions to create a bioprinter able to operate in the weightless environment of space.
The goal is to have a bioprinter ready for delivery to the International Space Station by 2018, according to a news release from Roscosmos. The news release described 3DBioprinting Solutions as a resident of the high tech SkolkovoInnovation Center area outside Moscow.
A compact bioprinter on ISS could be used for research on how space radiation effects human tissue and organs—a major concern for any type of long space exploration mission. The bioprinter might also provide insights into how replacement organs might someday be printed for space crews exploring deep space and other planets, said Roscosmos’s general director Yuri Vlasov.
This is fantastic stuff!