3D PRINTER THAT WOULD MAKE BANDAGES MADE OF HUMAN SKIN

Being an astronaut among other things means you typically get to try out all of the newest coolest, bleeding-edge toys. In that spirit, during a recent shipment from SpaceX’s 24th Commercial resupply mission, the crew of the International Space Station received the Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bio printer, from the German Space Agency or DLR. This has to be one of the coolest new toys they’ve had a chance to play with. In space, healing represents a few problems, low gravity is known to increase the necessary healing time for a wound for example. So the crew of the ISS is experimenting with the device to test how it responds in a low-gravity environment.

So what is the Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bio Printer?

Syfy reported,

“The device is designed to hold cells from astronauts or Earth-bound patients, infused inside a bio-ink. In the event of an injury, the Bioprint FirstAid would be used to apply a bandage to the injury site in near real-time. The bio-ink mixes with two fast setting gels and will create a covering similar to plaster.

Previously existing technologies for creating similar structures involved bulky machinery and required additional time for the patches to mature. The Bioprint FirstAid has the benefit of being small enough to hold in the hand and it is totally manual, requiring no batteries or other outside power source to use.”

NASA, the DSL, and the European Space Agency are experimenting with this technology in space in order to determine its viability for long-term space missions such as future lunar landings and missions to Mars, where with the given distances injuries to personnel are a far more serious problem. A simple cut or laceration can become life-threatening if the bleeding cannot be stopped of if it should become infected.

The device is ideal for any emergency setting on Earth or above it given that it is completely manual and doesn’t require batteries or external power in order to use it, it’s totally manual. According to the ESA, “The Bioprint First Aid bioprinter is hand-operated, consisting only of a handle, dispensing device, print head, guide wheels and two bio-ink cartridges. The technology demonstration will not use real human cells but fluorescent microparticles. When combined with two fast-curing gels, these microparticles create a plaster-like wound covering, which will be printed onto an astronaut’s foil-covered arm or leg and sent back to Earth for further testing.”