Netiquette IQ Blog Of The Day - The First Tool Sent Via Email From Earth To Outer Space!

If you read the banner page above, you are probably shaking your head or seeing if perhaps I made a typo! Your eyes are not deceiving you. This actually happened. Read the article below and you will get the details. This is another milestone for email!

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From 3dprint.com

First Ever Hardware is ‘Emailed’ to Space — Made in Space and NASA Email Wrench to ISS

by Sarah Anderson · December 19, 2014

Butch needed a wrench.

Usually this isn’t a big deal, but Butch couldn’t just drive over to Home Depot and grab a new one. “Butch” is ISS Commander Barry Wilmore, and he is currently orbiting the Earth.

Fortunately for Butch and the team aboard the International Space Station (ISS), they have a 3D printer at their disposal. With the impressive help of Made in Space, astronauts have been 3D printing objects they’ve needed (as well as a few to test the technology) since November. So far, 21 objects have been created via the ISS’ 3D printer. The same objects have also been 3D printed on terra firma, and will be compared to those printed in low-Earth orbit to see the effects, if any, of microgravity on the 3D printing process and pieces.

The first 20 objects were made using design files produced prior to the printer’s launch into orbit; the most recent, though, was made-to-order and was pretty much hardware “emailed” to space.

The team at Made in Space happened to overhear Butch talking about the need for a socket wrench, so they set about designing one in CAD to send up. They started out using Autodesk Inventor, and converted the file into G-code at the Made in Space office in Moffett Field, California, and then sent those files over to NASA, which, in turn, sent the files — via the Huntsville Operations Support Center — to the ISS.

Because files can be sent at the speed of light, the ISS team received the wrench significantly faster than they would have in years past, when they would have needed to wait for the next supply rocket launch. That’s a lot to go through just to get a small hand tool — and that’s a huge part of the entire Made in Space initiative.

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In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.

I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.

Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

If you have not already done so, please view the trailer for my book below. 

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I guess that’s official: we live in the future! Let us know your thoughts on this latest advance in the Hardware “Emailed” to ISS forum thread over at 3DPB.com.