Mars Home 3D Printing Library: Digital Fabrication Anywhere

"If we're going to get science policy right, it's really important for us to study the economic benefit of open access and not accept the arguments of incumbents. Existing media companies claim that they need ever stronger and longer copyright protection and new, draconian laws to protect them, and meanwhile, new free ecosystems, like the Web, have actually led to enormous wealth creation and enormous new opportunities for social value. And yes, they did in fact lead in some cases to the destruction of incumbents, but that's the kind of creative destruction that we should celebrate in the economy. We have to accept that, particularly in the area of science, there's an incredible opportunity for open access to enable new business models." Tim O'Reilly

O'Reilly Media's Maker Media unit publishes Make Magazine and operates Maker Faire, the world's largest gathering of DIY hardware enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. home could have a presence at Maker Faire, soliciting digital models for visual effects while building an open-source online 3D printing library applicable to real-world Mars use - inspired by home, even mentioned and used in episodes.

"Thingiverse is a place to share digital designs with the world. We believe that just as computing shifted away from the mainframe into the personal computer that you use today, digital fabrication will share the same path. In fact, it is already happening: laser cutters, cnc machines, 3D printers, and even automated paper cutters are all getting cheaper by the day. These machines are useful for a huge variety of things, but you need to supply them with a digital design in order to get anything useful out of them. We're hoping that together we can create a community of people who create and share designs freely, so that all can benefit from them."

The MakerBot Replicator™ is the tool from tomorrow, today. MakerBot Industries demonstrates its dedication to putting the tools of creativity into the hands of the those brilliant and bold enough to bring their imagination into the physical world. The MakerBot Replicator™ is an affordable, open source 3D printer that is compact enough to sit on your desktop. It is also an essential tool for children and students; parents and educators with a MakerBot Replicator™ offer the next generation an opportunity to learn the digital designing skills required to solve the problems of the future. 

Peter Diamandis on Mars to Stay

"I think privately funded missions are the only way to go to Mars with humans because I think the best way to go is on "one-way" colonization flights and no government will likely sanction such a risk. The timing for this could well be within the next 20 years. It will fall within the hands of a small group of tech billionaires who view such missions as the way to leave their mark on humanity."

"The cost, complexity and risk of round trip missions is too high. I also am concerned that they typically result in flag-and-footprint missions which is what happened with Apollo. Government space mission budgets always get cut and compromised in the long run - it's just the nature of the beast - and the science and meaningful long-term infrastructure is what gets cut out. With a one-way mission, you have to make sure you have the long-term infrastructure in place."

"A private Mars mission is likely to a five to ten billion endeavor and you won't see multiple teams ever raising this level. If we ever re-invent launch technology to reduce the cost by 100-fold, then I think a "humans to Mars prize" would make a lot of sense."

"I'm a big fan of heading to the asteroids first. In this light, I'd be very interested in a human outpost on Phobos before heading to the Martian surface. I do think this type of a human mission is within the scope, cost, and risk of governments."

(Peter Diamandis, X Prize creator (interview January 2011 with ExploreMars MEM Vol1, Issue 1)

Paradigm Shift...yes, please.

I know now the beloved

Has no fixed abode,

That each body She inhabits

Is only a temporary

home.

That she

Casts off forms

As eagerly

As lovers shed clothes.

I accept that he's

Just passing through

That flower

Or that stone.

And yet, it makes Me dizzy—

The way he hides

In the flow of it,

The way she shifts

In fluid motions,

Becoming other things.

I want to stop him— 

If only briefly.

I want to lure her

To the surface

And catch her

In this net of words.

untitled, by Gregory Orr

The Power of Art: Think Different

"The Crazy Ones" (Original "Long version" appeared on posters made by Apple. Apple folklore has it Steve Jobs was the author of the original piece.)

Original

“

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

”

Full version

“

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

”

Short version

“

Here’s to the crazy ones. The rebels. The troublemakers. The ones who see things differently. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

”

More Third-Party Tie-ins and Advertising Opportunities

"Exploration of the unknown might not strike everyone as a priority. Yet audacious visions have the power to alter mind-states—to change assumptions of what is possible. When a nation permits itself to dream big, those dreams pervade its citizens’ ambitions. They energize the electorate. During the Apollo era, you didn’t need government programs to convince people that doing science and engineering was good for the country. It was self-evident. And even those not formally trained in technical fields embraced what those fields meant for the collective national future. Epic space adventures plant seeds of economic growth, because doing what’s never been done before is intellectually seductive (whether deemed practical or not), and innovation follows, just as day follows night." 

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Home+Skype MarsSim Plugin

It would be cool if Home were to lead an effort to create a Skype plugin simulating communication with Mars with a three to twenty-two minute communication delay related to the actual realtime location of Mars (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars#Communication ).

Not only would such a free, public, high-profile project have practical applications for sim-projects on Earth, but as the public plays with such a plugin it could also allay concerns some space enthusiasts might have about settlers leaving friends and family to live "in isolation".

A Skype plug-in could offer the ability to record video messages in an ongoing stream of conversation over an artificial time delay, enabling video chat in the same way SMS chats may not necessarily be real-time....

http://shop.skype.com/apps/

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