NASA Awards Grant to Tethers Unlimited, Also to Firmamentum for 3D Recycler

Last year, NASA awarded a grant to Washington-based company Tethers Unlimited to further develop their Positrusion Recycler for use on the International Space Station. The Positrusion, which was developed specifically with the ISS in mind, recycles plastic waste into filament in a process that, according to TUI, is as easy as operating a microwave. While commercial versions of the Positrusion system are still in development, NASA has evidently been very satisfied with the technology, as they've just awarded Firmamentum, a division of TUI, a Phase III SBIR for the creation of a combination 3D printer/recycler for the ISS. The device, dubbed the Refabricator, will be an experiment in closed-cycle manufacturing in outer space, and NASA hopes that it can eventually be used on missions to Mars. Read more at 3DPrint.com: https://3dprint.com/140110/tethers-u...-refabricator/
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