I had the chance to tour hypersonic plane maker Hermeus as part of a tour through Next Generation Manufacturing of Georgia. We had to sign a non-disclosure as part of the tour so I can’t say much about what I saw and I’ll just limit my comments to what’s in press releases and other places in the public domain.

You might have heard of ChatGPT. It’s the artificial Intelligence (AI) program that can write essays, emails, poetry, articles and even lines of computer code. There have been a lot of buzz about it in the media about kids and college students using it to do their homework for them to journalists wondering if they’ll someday be replaced. I asked it to write an essay about 3D printing and this is what I got:

So it may be meant for the younger demographic, but I’m a big fan of The Henry Ford Innovation Nation of CBS on Saturday mornings, setting my DVR for it every week. It is hosted by Mo Rocca (formerly of the Daily Show) and is a weekly science show hosted out of The Henry Ford Museum. It also features correspondents and one of my favorites is Alie Ward. In a recent episode there was a great piece by Alie describing making wood products with sawdust 3D printing. 3D printing comes up quite frequently and the show also has lots of fringe new tech mixed with some cool facts and humor. A great show for kids and those that are a kid at heart.

I’m a huge roller coaster fan and even have a sister blog dedicated to Busch Gardens. One of the more recent advances in roller coaster technology has been the use of magnetic launches as opposed to the old school lift hill (think click, click, click up the hill). To be fair launch does go back 50+ years with examples like the Tidal Wave coaster I used to ride at Six Flags Great America as a kid. This defunct ride actually used a falling weight and pulley system to launch the train with a deafening “clank” as the weight hit bottom! One of my personal current favorite launch coasters in Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa where the launches are used to mimic the acceleration and movements of a cheetah.

I love when 3D printing can accomplish something to help someone solve a real problem and save money. Here’s a great case where a school student or lab could use a 3D printer and a common hand tool to replace a piece of lab equipment that can often cost thousands.

The James Webb telescope has unfolded and arrived at its destination about 1,000,000 miles from Earth. There are tremendous 3D printing aspects here as many of the parts were designed with the assistance of 3D printing, helping validate many of the new technologies found in the telescope.

I had a chance to ride in the tunnel system at the Las Vegas Convention Center built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company. If was a fun experience, although the tunnels were significantly tighter than I expected. The driver told us that a “test” they need to do as a part of training is drive through one backwards which did not sound fun to me.

The company recently held a tunneling competition with 400 applicants reduced to 12 finalists to compete in building an actual tunnel in the Nevada desert with their machines. The winners were a team called Swissloop Tunneling who used in situ 3D printing to reinforce their tunnel as it was being built. Pretty cool to see another construction use of 3D printing!

If you want a fun summer vacation and love 3D printing this is for you. A fully 3D printed house located in Western Canada is now on Airbnb. It’s actually pretty affordable too at around $130/night. It’s described on the site as:

The World’s first fully 3D Printed concrete tiny home on Airbnb.

This unique architectural home was designed based on the famous Fibonacci Sequence.

This is a fund raiser to help World Housing (.org) continue their important mission, solving the housing crisis.

Located in tranquil Procter, 40 km-s from Nelson, British Columbia. You can enjoy the grandiose view of the Purcell Mountains. Go hiking, mountain biking or take a walk to the community beach for a dip in the pristine Kootenay Lake.

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/50461670

Lots of dates available in August/September and it’s just over the border from Idaho, so go ahead and plan away!

Who says you can’t get anything decent for free? Jiga has this awesome free CAD viewer for Gmail where you can look at a file right in Gmail rather than using another program. Pretty handy little tool!

This video from @3DPrintGeeks has me in a Star Wars mood. May the 4th be with you!