Unveiled at the 2021 Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the design for the first inflatable plant cultivation pod holds a lot of potential for expanding sustainable farming on Earth and in space. Created by French-American company Interstellar Lab, these advanced environmentally-controlled greenhouses, called BioPods, have been designed to grow over 300 different fruits, vegetables, flowers, and plants anywhere. Now, the innovative company has partnered with large-scale 3D printing startup Soliquid to build BioPods for use on Earth and in space, relying on additive manufacturing (AM) technologies.

Through the deal, Interstellar Lab will develop an entirely new 3D printing strategy to manufacture the inflatable membrane and all the material systems for the BioPod. The company also aims to 3D print well its Mars simulators, dubbed Experimental Bioregenerative Station (EBios), designed as the first closed-loop, environment-controlled villages on Earth. This “exciting new adventure,” as Soliquid described it, will leverage its six-axis robot and extruder to 3D print complex parts in suspension, without support, faster, and with less material.

Backed by Leonard, VINCI‘s future of construction acceleration program, Soliquid is focused on large-scale suspension 3D printing for architecture, engineering, construction, and design industries. The firm has developed a patented system to 3D print concrete, resins, and other materials in a controlled environment with a sustainable and efficient process.

Soliquid’s Co-Founder Jim Rhoné, now Interstellar Lab’s Chief Product Officer (CPO), and Interstellar Lab Founder Barbara Belvisi. Image courtesy of Interstellar Lab.

By scaling the production of BioPods through AM, Interstellar Lab will meet the growing demand on Earth. Founded in 2018 by venture capital expert Barbara Belvisi after several months of incubation at NASA Ames Space Portal, Interstellar Lab now has a team of 15 former SpaceX, Disney, Airbus, and Thales employees. As part of the agreement, Soliquid’s Co-Founder Jim Rhoné has joined the group as Chief Product Officer (CPO), supervising BioPod’s product development from design to delivery while overseeing the manufacturing process.

Rhoné’s latest professional career move comes as no surprise, considering he was already working as an Architect and Computational Designer for Interstellar Lab’s Paris headquarters since September 2020. Rhoné has described his new role as a “dream” in a company where he shares the conviction that the technologies currently being developed for space will help preserve Earth. “Space and ocean explorations are intimately linked and, as we start revealing both of their mysteries, Soliquid will bring the best of its expertise to help turn Barbara’s vision into a reality. Fascinating times and challenges ahead.”

Interstellar Lab’s environmentally-controlled modules for sustainable farming on Earth and life-support in space. Image courtesy of Interstellar Lab.

Focused on providing space-grade technology to grow plants efficiently, Interstellar Lab’s BioPods for sustainable farming on Earth and life-support in space could be pivotal for upcoming crewed space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. For decades, NASA has been heavily involved in advancing applications for growing food crops in space. In the late 1980s, space crop research gained serious momentum. At the time, the agency was interested in methods for aeroponic crop production in space and hydroponic systems for watering and fertilizing plants in microgravity, among others.

Although many of those experiments fell through, today, the agency needs to move quickly as upcoming space missions like the Artemis Moon landing program are slated to happen sometime in the next decade. With several plans for humans to explore and colonize space in the works, including deep-space missions like a trip to an asteroid or Mars, space farming becomes less of a novelty and more of a necessity.

Interstellar Lab plans to build a utopian Martian village on the Mojave desert. Image courtesy of Interstellar Lab.

The BioPods have been designed using the Dassault Systems 3D Experience platform, and Interstellar Labs promises that its first model showcasing will take place near Paris sometime in autumn 2021. The innovative creation works as a standalone system using advanced crop cultivation technology to foster bio-diversity, turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, close out the water loop and reduce the land need factor by 100. Expected to become the “future of sustainable plant cultivation,” the BioPod’s inflatable membrane technology will be 3D printed with high-performance materials that the company expects will result in high insulation properties.

Potentially working as fully regenerative habitats that automatically regulate air, pressure, water, temperature, and humidity, the pods could create ideal environmental conditions for humans and plants off-Earth. They can be used alone or can be attached to form modules. By combining modules, the company believes it can support life for larger groups and become a framework for sustainable cities on Earth and in the future in space.

In fact, Interstellar Lab has also been designing the first EBios village in the Mojave desert and thinking about the second one for NASA space-based government research in Cape Canaveral, Florida, near the Kennedy Space Center. In this forthcoming context, the partnership with Soliquid will allow Interstellar Lab to launch the development of innovative inflatable 3D printed membrane and test 3D printed regolith structures for lunar In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) applications of the BioPod in partnership with space agencies.

Soliquid’s 3D printing technology. Image courtesy of Soliquid.

By employing a reusable matrix and topology optimization workflows, Soliquid’s technology can help restore fragile ecosystems by 3D printing biomimetic constructive systems that foster the return of life and blooming of biodiversity. As a testament to what they can do, their latest artificial reef project Bathyreef, supported by the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (Mio), is designed to be a sanctuary for marine life.

With one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions coming from inefficient, traditional farming methods, Interstellar Lab’s new modules for sustainable farming could accelerate the transition to environmental regenerative solutions on Earth by creating highly efficient integrated food production, water, and waste recycling systems. The BioPod’s interior climate, completely environmentally controlled and sealed from exterior contaminants like pests or pollution, would enable the growth of the highest quality food in any environment.

In the automotive industry 3D printing has demonstrated an ability to lower costs, make parts lightweight, and speed up development cycles and component production times without sacrificing quality. In terms of big-name automakers adopting 3D printing into their workflow, Nissan seems like it’s lagging behind a bit compared to its fellows. This bums me out a little, as my husband and I both drive Nissan cars. But it looks like those days might be over, as Barcelona 3D printer manufacturer BCN3D announced that Nissan is speeding up its assembly line in Spain with the firm’s fused filament fabrication (FFF) solutions.

Since integrating BCN3D’s industrial desktop 3D printers at its Barcelona factory to print tools, jigs, and fixtures, the automaker is reporting extremely impressive time and cost savings, which could lead to the technology being used to make prototypes and parts at more of its manufacturing sites around the world.

Catalytic converter

Temporary water pump support fixture

“The automotive industry is probably the best example of scaling up a complex product with the demands of meeting highest quality standards. It’s fascinating to see how the assembly process of a car – where many individual parts are put together in an assembly line – relies on FFF printed parts at virtually every stage,” said Eric Pallarés, the CTO at BCN3D. “Having assembled thousands of cars, Nissan has found that using BCN3D 3D printing technology to make jigs and fixtures for complex assembly operations delivers consistently high quality components at a reduced time and lower cost.”

Steering column

Until now, Nissan outsourced its jigs and prototype production to mechanical suppliers, who made these parts via traditional methods like drilling and CNC machining. While the quality was high, lead times were long and inflexible. Moreover, it was fairly expensive, with something like a simple tool costing around €400. Nissan has printed 700 parts in-house so far, some at a cost of less than €5, with a total reported cost savings of around 95%. Additionally, the timeline for designing, developing, and producing parts has gone down from one week to one day.

Screwdriver support jig

Roof upholstery protection

“The performance achieved in terms of reliability has been excellent. Our printer runs nearly 24 hours a day and every year we’re printing around 100 different jigs and tools for specific use in our processes,” said Carlos Rellán Martínez, manager of maintenance & engineering facilities at Nissan Motor Ibérica Zona Franca, Barcelona. “Outsourcing tools to a mechanical supplier was 20 times more expensive than 3D printing the same parts, while the wait for tools went from a week down to one day. By introducing 3D printing, we have increased added value and generated low costs, without high delivery times. We have paid off the investment in the printers very quickly.”

A farm of four BCN3D Epsilon Series 3D printers is housed at Nissan’s additive manufacturing laboratories. The printers, which can work 24/7 to keep up with the automaker’s demanding production schedule, feature an Independent Dual Extrusion (IDEX) system, and this helps speed up production even more because two identical components can be printed at the same time.

Lateral drill positioning

BCN3D’s printers have been used to print a great deal of products for Nissan, such as a jig to position and cure a vehicle’s model name; this jig, made out of ABS, cost just €3.45 to make and was printed in 12 hours. A 3D printed TPU tool for fixing a windshield centering gauge took 14 hours to print and cost €8, while a lower drill positioning tool, also printed from ABS, cost €21.50 and took 15 hours to print.

In addition to its 3D printers, Nissan is also using the new BCN3D Smart Cabinet, which was created to provide optimal conditions for protecting and maintaining 3D printing filament. The cabinet helps extend the shelf life of filament and preserve its printability, reduce aesthetic defects, and help users avoid wasting money on reprints.

BCN3D Epsilon Series Smart Cabinet

At the moment, Nissan is 3D printing parts with plastic material, though it is trialing metal ones as well. For a look into the automaker’s Barcelona factory to see how it’s using 3D printing on the assembly line to create prototypes and final parts for vehicles, including the Navara 4×4 pickup truck, check out the video below:

(Source/Images: BCN3D)

Blackstone Resources AG (SWX: BLS) has announced that it is exploring the possibility of opening a U.S. branch that would be publicly traded. The firm, which is currently traded on the SWISS Six exchange, is considering the move as a means of raising further funds and diversifying its existing investor base. This would drive the company’s development as it launches a battery 3D printing technology in 2022.

Blackstone Resources is a Swiss Holding company focused on battery technology and metals. Through its subsidiary, Blackstone Technology, the firm is creating a process dubbed Blackstone Thick Layer Technology for 3D printing lithium-ion batteries with 20 percent greater density than those made with traditional methods.

The company claims that its patented process can fabricate both liquid-electrolyte and solid-state batteries, potentially cutting capital expenditure by 70 percent and operational costs by 30 percent compared to conventional techniques. For solid state batteries, which it says it will be able to mass produce, it even suggests that energy density can be increased by 100 percent. The manufacturing process is said to use 25 percent less energy, as well, due to efficiency gained in the drying process.

Additionally, Blackstone Resources establishes and manages refineries for processing battery-related metals, such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, graphite, nickel and copper. It says that it is involved in projects in Canada, Chile, Mongolia, Peru, Norway and Colombia. In each of these locations, it is executing such endeavors as investing in First Cobalt, to obtain a stake in ethically produced cobalt in Canada and Idaho, or exploring mining concessions for possible lithium. Blackstone claims to have begun exploring for a number of minerals.

Mining is an industry that can be utilized for fraudulent investment activity due to the need for extensive surveying and exploration before financial gains can be made. This combined with promises of new technologies, a generic website, and the fact that the company is already trading on the stock market before releasing a product raised a couple of red flags.

While the Swiss SIX is the country’s primary stock exchange, thus lending a note of trustworthiness to Blackstone, it’s always crucial to investigate a company before investing. In the past, there have been fraudulent businesses that use stock markets as a means of fueling pump-and-dump schemes. One of the ways they generate activity on poorly regulated markets is by releasing regular press releases that cause excited, sometimes inexperienced, investors to purchase stock. These press releases might be distributed on forums by company insiders. When the stock goes up, the insiders sell and generate a bit of money for themselves.

In particular, Jason Simpson, the inventor of what was once Australia’s largest extrusion 3D printer, was taken advantage of by some investors who used the ASX to conduct such an operation. Simpson’s 3D Group was also linked to a variety of mining operations, as well as some legitimate businesses. The Victorian government even funded 3D Group to produce 3D printers for educational programs.

It was with this in mind that I looked a bit at the background of Blackstone and its management. On its website, Blackstone boasts a number of managers spanning its businesses, including Blackstone Technology and Blackstone Resources Chile SpA, but fewer traditional staff members, including engineers and technicians—though there is an office manager on LinkedIn. Importantly, the company claims that it has already completed the second phase of its battery printing project, “the first 3D screen-printed solid-state battery cells.”

However, of these managers and executives, many seem to have established backgrounds specifically in the areas necessary for mining and battery development. For instance, Dr. David Flaschenträger worked in battery technology for BMZ GmbH, E-Force One AG, and Quantron AG, as well as at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Holger Gritzka, CEO of Blackstone Technology, previously ran TerraE Holdings and TerraE Engineering GmbH, which sold to German battery maker BMZ for €120 million in 2018. This came just after a TerraE-led consortium dedicated to German-made batteries seemed to collapse. Before that, Gritzka was the Head of Battery Plant Technologies at thyssenkrupp System Engineering GmbH.

Additionally, the company’s advisory board has an impressive roster. This includes Franz Fink, whose Maxwell Technologies was bought by Tesla for US$ 218 million, and Ulrich Ehmes, who was CEO of Swiss lithium-ion battery producer Leclanché SA and CTO of TerraE. The board also includes prominent academics in the field of battery research and development.

The company also seems to be making progress in the development of its technology. CEO Ulrich Ernst does in fact have a patent for the printing of batteries. Blackstone Technology has 3D printed a mechanically stable solid-state electrolyte as a separator, produced a printable composite cathode (as well as a solid-state electrolyte and lithium iron phosphate composite), and printed a 5 x 5 square cm pouch cell as a functional demonstrator without a mechanical spacer.

The 5 x 5 sq cm pouch cell. Image courtesy of Blackstone Resources.

With its partners, Blackstone was awarded a CHF 1.3 million grant from the Swiss innovation agency, Innosuisse, to continue its work on solid-state electrolytes, specifically the simulation of mass 3D printing solid state batteries and scale up the process. Also along with its partners, Blackstone Technology was awarded a €2 million grant from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program. Blackstone is one company within a consortium of 12 players to electrify Europe’s shipping industry, for which it aims to create batteries in 2022.

Unlike the suspicious mining projects I’ve come across in the past, Blackstone doesn’t provide ridiculous estimates of the types of minerals it expects to be found in the areas it is exploring. Instead, it describes the fact that the regions it is exploring are known to have deposits and provides fair and measured information about the extent of its work in those areas. Therefore, the places where it has already begun exploring, like Norway, have much more extensive detail than the locations where work is only beginning, like Colombia. It seems to have at least one mine up and running, in Peru, where it is mining gold and silver.

With all of this in mind, I have concluded that the firm seems to be mostly on the level. By reaching across the ocean to the U.S., it will compete against companies like Sakuu, which is in the process of releasing an alpha system. It will also be able to gain investors from those wishing to compete with Sakuu. Blackstone claims to already be in talks with investment banks and will begin production of batteries in September 2021. To get onto a U.S. stock exchange, Blackstone is considering the use of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), leveraged buyout or even an IPO.

So, while Blackstone may not be as well-known as a firm like Rocket Lab or Desktop Metal, it could be a potentially disruptive player in the world of battery manufacturing. Whether that’s enough to back it on the stock market is another story.

Over the past several years, the golf industry has steadily warmed to 3D printing. In this article, we’ll take a walk down memory lane and catalog the major 3D printing developments in golf and look towards the future. I believe that 3D printing is the future of sticks and clubs, so I’m bullish about the prospects of 3D printing in golf. So are some of the largest companies in the game, but how far is the golf industry in the adoption of 3D printing?

In 2015, Cobra 3D printed new designs in order to evaluate their performance. It helped them to make and validate new clubs and designs. For St. Andrews Golf Co. and the University of Dundee, 3D scanning enabled the company to create new clubs based on old designs.

In 2015, Ping actually produced a 3D printed putter that was designed to be more accurate than conventional ones. Traditional manufacturing of clubs includes casting and then welding pieces together, which results in the creation of a vulnerable weld line. With 3D printing, however, that weak point can be completely eliminated.

Furthermore, the company had a visionary plan to provide players with custom-fit putters, developed by working with a designer to determine a player’s needs and preferences. This customization service would ultimately be available through the internet, but, when the announcement came in 2015, it was only possible in-person. Custom 3D-printed putters would be sold for £5,000 to £6,000 (about $7,700 to $9,200).

Since then, however, crickets from Ping.

A CRP case study on the Krone golf club.

In 2016, Krone and CRP Group made a driver that used 3D printed, glass fiber-reinforced polymer parts combined with powder bed fusion titanium components on the face of the club. This could enable customization, while reducing the costs of the overall club.

Another project by Krone and CRP saw the creation of a 3D printed smart golf club that could relay swing information to your tablet in order to help improve your game.

In 2018, Grismont Paris tried a high-end approach, leading to ultra-expensive, custom-made clubs that used 3D printing in part. At around the same time, Nike announced a breakthrough golf ball development, where it would use Dupont Surlyn and 3D printing to produce golf ball cores. Indeed Nike now has a patent on a 3D printed golf ball core. The product was never launched, however.

Titomic and Callaway collaborated in 2018 to make golf products using Titomic Kinetic Fusion. The company also worked with GE Additive’s consulting arm on putters. In part, the partners were able to change the acoustics of a club for the Japanese market by 3D printing a prototype.

Taylor Made disclosed later that it was extensively relying on Formlabs to test and design clubs.

In 2020, Cobra Golf partnered with HP to binder jet metal golf clubs, including putters and more. This should mean that the resulting clubs have a much lower cost than if they were made with powder bed fusion. This was a limited line of products. However, by 2021, it had ditched HP’s MetalJet in favor of its Multi Jet Fusion, swapping metal for plastic, further reducing prices and introducing a product that was widely available to consumers.

All in all, if we get an overview we can conclude that the entire golf industry must have considered and looked at 3D printing. So many of the major players use it in prototyping that it must be a common technology in testing and design there. But, while there have been a lot of “3D printed golf club” announcements, there have been far fever actual 3D printed golf clubs. There seems to be considerable hesitation by golf club companies of taking products into the actual market.

If we compare it to the bike industry, then the golf industry is actually behind cycling in releasing actual goods on the market. In cycling, there are far more 3D printed bike components available and actually riding on bikes. Even though safety and liability could be much more of an issue for that industry. Also whereas in cycling it is the small companies using 3D printing to innovate, in golf all of the large companies are touting their 3D printing props.

So in cycling, it is the minnows that are quickly deploying actual goods, whereas, in golf, it is the majors conducting pilot projects. We can also see a lot of lag between the interest of the company, to the launch of the first products. Callaway has apparently been collaborating and working on products since 2018 at least, while Cobra is now working on 3D printing clubs just as it was in 2015.

The business justification must make it a bit complicated to use 3D printing for actual drivers. It’s remarkable that, in 2015, PING formulated a very visionary strategy for adopting and implementing 3D printing for customization and performance improvement. Meanwhile, the industry seems to not have implemented PING’s strategy.

The measurable performance increases that may be created in 3D printing are less quantifiable in golf. Part count or weight savings may be interesting, but they are less of a motivator than in the satellite industry or space propulsion. The sticker shock on component cost must also be particularly worrying in these manufacturers’ cases. Perhaps in this case the benefits and potential of 3D printing is understood but the requisite investment and complexity may not make sense because it could lead to unwanted capex or less in the way of margins?

I think that these manufacturers are dealing with the wrong end of the stick. A simple 3D scanning or mass-customized design of more comfortable custom golf club grips would be a far easier business case to make, You can introduce a new service that would work with an app or in-store scanning service. The polymer parts are lower cost and, at the same time, you can comfortably outsource the production. It would not cannibalize existing profits because you’d sell it as an add-on product or a separate item. Would you like to throw custom grips onto your order? This would make 3D printing a profit engine alongside your existing offering, not something to replace it.

I think that grips that are custom, more comfortable, make a statement, dampen vibration and hit better would be a surefire product win for golf companies. They would also be easy to make if they used HP’s new PP material or sintered TPU. To me, there is a hesitancy in the golf industry that is getting in the way of adoption. Perhaps this would be the solution to that?

Upon previously announcing itself as one of HP’s partners for MetalJet 3D printing, Volkswagen has revealed that it is now using the technology to make end parts at its primary production facility in Wolfsburg, Germany. According to the largest vehicle manufacturer (by sales), it is the only car maker using binder jetting in its production line.

In 2018, HP shook the 3D printing space with news of its metal binder jetting technology. Along with new entrant Desktop Metal, metal binder jetting was suddenly the new focus of attention with its ability to 3D print metal parts at a price much lower than powder bed fusion, the dominant metal additive manufacturing (AM) tech in the industry. By producing a green part that could be sintered in a furnace, MetalJet was ready to take advantage of existing infrastructure and know-how associated with the metal injection molding (MIM) sector and take the world by storm.

Two Volkswagen employees check the quality of structural parts produced using the binder jetting process for car production in front of the prototype of the special printer at the high-tech 3D printing center in Wolfsburg. Image courtesy of VW.

Since then, the rollout has not been entirely quick, but the customers using MetalJet have been substantial. For instance, Cobra Golf, a subsidiary of Puma, used it to 3D print a consumer putter in 2020. The United States Marine Corps is using HP’s binder jetting to 3D print replacement parts for amphibious vehicles. British multinational GKN is also running the machines in its 3D printing service bureau.

Volkswagen has invested “an amount in the mid-double-digit million euro range over the past five years” into 3D printing. It has 13 systems for metal and plastic 3D printing at its Wolfsburg plant. In plastic, it 3D prints prototypes for such items as center consoles, door cladding, bumpers and instrument panels. In metal, it 3D prints prototypes for radiators, intake manifolds, brackets and support pieces. In total, the company claims it has produce over a million components.

To build its binder jetting capabilities, the automaker is partnering with Siemens and expanding its work with HP. Siemens is providing VW with special software for AM, working with the company to optimize part positioning within the build chamber, thus making it possible to 3D print twice as many components in a single print job.

A 3D printed gearshift knob that VW revealed with the unveiling of MetalJet in 2018. Image courtesy of HP.

“We are very proud to support Volkswagen with our innovative 3D printing solutions. Our automation and software solutions are leading in industrial production applications. Using this technology, Volkswagen will be able to develop and produce components faster, more flexibly and using fewer resources,” said Cedrik Neike, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO Digital Industries.

As the three companies create a “joint expert team” at the 3D printing center opened at Wolfsburg in 2018, they will push the technology toward full-scale production of parts. This includes developing the experience to determine which components can be 3D printed in a fast and affordable fashion.

It wasn’t until the introduction of binder jetting that metal 3D printing was deemed cost-effective for Volkswagen. Now, the conglomerate aims to 3D print 100,000 vehicle parts annually by 2025. The first items made with binder jetting are for the A pillar in the upcoming T-Roc convertible, which are currently being certified at the company’s site in Osnabrück. Volkswagen says that these parts weigh 50 percent less than traditionally made sheet steel counterparts. The company has already performed crash tests on 3D printed metal vehicle parts, though they did not specify if these A pillar elements in particular were those tested.

If all goes as planned, this will be a huge deal for 3D printing and the automotive space. Manufacturers have so far only toyed around with the use of 3D printed end parts in luxury, sports and race vehicles, but not yet in a consumer-oriented car. This would then be the first mass produced auto with 3D printed components, meaning that an average person could encounter a 3D printed element out in the wild. Just as everything Airbus is doing for the A350 is significantly boosting the role and visibility of AM in aerospace, VW will be doing the same for the automotive industry. 3D printing in automotive is predicted to result in a $9 billion opportunity by 2029, according to SmarTech Analysis, and Volkswagen would be leading the pack.

Where just a few years ago, VW was the brand most associated with the car emissions scandal (overlooking Volvo, Renault, Jeep, Hyundai, Citroën and Fiat, who also cheated their diesel emissions testing), this could help polish the conglomerate’s previously tarnished past. If Volkswagen can implement 3D printing across its companies, it could ultimately reduce the weight of its vehicles, thus cutting emissions for gas cars and improving electricity range for its EVs. It won’t be enough to save the planet, but it would be enough to save VW.

GREENBELT, MD — The U.S. Postal Service issued the Sun Science stamps today. The Forever stamps were dedicated during a ceremony at the Greenbelt Main Post Office and are now for sale at Post Offices nationwide. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtags #NASASunScience and #SunSciencestamps.

“We hope these amazing stamps will help generate the same sense of wonder and curiosity about our star that inspired our ancestors and the scientists at NASA to want to better understand the sun, space, and the myriad of possibilities that exist in our solar system, in our universe and beyond,” said Thomas J. Marshall, the Postal Service’s general counsel and executive vice president, and the stamp ceremony’s dedicating official.

Background

The Postal Service highlights stunning images of the sun that celebrate the science behind the ongoing exploration of our nearest star.

Printed with a foil treatment that adds a glimmer to the stamps, the images on these stamps come from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched in February 2010 to keep a constant watch on the sun from geosynchronous orbit above Earth. The striking colors in these images do not represent the actual colors of the sun as perceived by human eyesight. Instead, each image is colorized by NASA according to different wavelengths that reveal or highlight specific features of the sun’s activity.

One of the stamps highlights sunspots, two feature images of coronal holes, two show coronal loops, two depict plasma blasts, one is a view of an active sun that emphasizes its magnetic fields, and two show different views of a solar flare.

Heliophysics, the study of the sun and its influence on the planets and space surrounding them, has important implications for our day-to-day lives. Although the space between the sun and Earth appears empty to human eyes, it is actually full of particles and energy from the constant flow of solar wind emitted by the sun. That space is affected by a complex, ever-changing magnetic field that influences our entire solar system. Increased understanding of the sun helps us better explain and predict its impact not only on Earth’s climate but also on the near-Earth space environment and how it affects sensitive human technology, such as communications systems and satellite electronics. As humanity continues to explore space, a deeper knowledge of solar activity will also make it possible to identify and solve problems involved in communications, data collection, spacecraft and satellite design, and the effects of space radiation on the human body.

Art director Antonio Alcalá designed the stamps from photos that have been colorized by NASA to correspond with the wavelengths that reveal specific features of the sun’s activity.

A video about the stamps is available on facebook.com/usps. A pictorial postmark of the designated first-day-of-issue city, Greenbelt, MD, is available at usps.com/shopstamps.

The Sun Science stamps are being issued as a Forever stamp in panes of 20. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1‑ounce price.

Postal Products

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 844-737-7826, by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide.

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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• Improves utilization of surface transportation, while lessening reliance on more costly and less dependable air transportation network
• Contributes to costs savings and meeting or exceeding 95 percent on-time delivery across shipping and product classes
• Aligns with 10-year “Delivering for America” plan’s commitment to service excellence
• Majority of delivery standards for packages unaffected by proposed changes

WASHINGTON, DC — The Postal Service announced today additional actions to improve service reliability by initiating the process of requesting an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission to evaluate its proposal to modify select service standards for First-Class Package Service (FCPS). This initiative is part of “Delivering for America,” the Postal Service’s 10-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service excellence. A fact sheet on the proposed changes to service standards for first-class packages is available here: https://about.usps.com/what/strategic-plans/delivering-for-america/#fcps

Modifying select service standards will allow for additional transport time for long-distance package deliveries and increased network efficiencies. The new FCPS service standards will also enable additional package volume to be transported by surface transportation, which is more reliable and affordable compared to air transportation.

Sixty-four percent of First-Class Package Service volume will be unaffected by the proposed standard changes. Four percent will be upgraded from a 3-day to 2-day service standard. For the remainder of the volume (32 percent), the service standard will increase by one or two days.

“Modifying select service standards is a key growth element and enabler of our 10-year plan, contributing to our top goal of meeting or exceeding 95 percent on-time delivery across all product classes, including the growing package market,” said Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy. “By implementing the elements of our 10-year plan, we will deliver the consistent, reliable service that the American people and our customers expect and deserve and grow package volume, spurring revenue growth that can be invested back into the Postal Service.”

Service standards are delivery benchmarks for how long customers can expect the Postal Service to deliver different types of mail from origin to destination — Point A to Point B. Service standards are not the same as the percentage targets or the actual measured service performance.

With full implementation, the Postal Service’s 10-year plan aims to reverse a projected $160 billion in losses over the next 10 years. The Plan’s growth and efficiency initiatives will spur cash flow and savings to make $40 billion in capital investments over the next 10 years – including $20 billion towards the Postal Service’s mail and package processing network, facility upgrades and procurement of new processing equipment.   

The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

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Carnegie Mellon University spinout company FluidForm, co-founded by Biomedical Engineering Professor Adam Feinberg, announced an agreement with Johnson and Johnson (J&J)’s medical device subsidiary Ethicon to develop 3D bioprinting solutions. Through the collaboration, the two companies will expand and use FluidForm’s patented and award-winning Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) bioprinting technology across various applications.

Part of Carnegie Mellon’s Bioengineered Organs Initiative, Feinberg’s lab first developed FRESH bioprinting in 2015. Since then, it has been used to rebuild functional components of the human heart, as well as for printing collagen and other soft biomaterials to build advanced scaffolds for a wide range of tissues and organ systems. FRESH uses an embedded printing approach with a temporary support gel that makes it possible to 3D print complex scaffolds using collagen in its native unmodified form.

FluidForm’s patented FRESH technology is proven to produce real functional beating human ventricles and heart valves. Image courtesy of FluidForm.

With Ethicon, FluidForm will leverage the FRESH platform to achieve specific tissue characteristics that cannot be manufactured with conventional techniques. Recreating functional human tissue for research, training, and potentially replacement could transform human health, said FluidForm.

FluidForm CEO Mike Graffeo said his team was thrilled by the impact that FRESH printing can have and excited to collaborate with a global leader in surgery like Ethicon to deliver on their joint ambitious goals. As a member of J&J’s family of companies, Ethicon has access to the firm’s 3D Printing Center, used to develop advanced applications for 3D printing in the biomedical sphere. Headed by mechanical engineer Sam Onukuri, the facility has worked with Ethicon on several projects, including developing a prototype for bioprinted knee meniscus tissue that would be suitable for surgical implants, potentially making surgery and recovery easier on patients.

About the new collaboration, Onukuri said in a LinkedIn post that collaboration is key in Johnson & Johnson’s pursuit of reimagining healthcare. “We’re pleased to partner with FluidForm, striving to meet the needs of patients around the world in ways that can’t be achieved traditionally. Together, we have the opportunity to unlock the potential of bioprinting to achieve specific tissue characteristics that can be used for the purposes of research and development, training, and more. Bioprinting can transform the way healthcare professionals diagnose, plan and care for their patients. I look forward to seeing the innovation born from this collaboration of great minds and technology!”

Additionally, Feinberg, who is also Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at FluidForm, expressed on social media that he is delighted to take this “major step forward in commercializing engineered human tissue using FRESH 3D bioprinting in partnership with Ethicon and J&J.” In fact, this new opportunity with a legacy manufacturer of medical devices for surgeries will provide FluidForm even more support to deliver on its promise of building functional tissues, organs, and therapeutic therapies that could radically transform human health and longevity.

Adam Feinberg and his team created the first full-size 3D bioprinted human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. Image courtesy of Carnegie Mellon University.

Though bioprinting has achieved key milestones, Feinberg and his colleagues realized years ago that researchers were limited because soft materials were difficult to print with high fidelity beyond a few layers in height due to sag. Hurdling this key obstacle was key to the technology’s success.

After being awarded a US patent in 2018, FRESH technology was licensed to FluidForm, which is expanding the capability of 3D printing to pave the way for fabricating complete artificial organs. The startup has been building human tissue for drug discovery, surgical repair, and organ transplant. Focused on integrating its breakthrough innovations in 3D printing, computational and synthetic biology, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and advanced materials science, FluidForm is creating human tissue that is indistinguishable from the real thing.

The company’s pipeline includes development and preclinical programs addressing significant unmet needs in human health, including bioprosthetic implantable medical devices and a new generation of structurally and compositionally complex tissue models to test drug efficacy and cardiotoxicity, with an ultimate focus on tissue and organ replacement.

Through collaborations with companies, labs, and researchers, more and more papers using FRESH are getting published, like a recent one with Italian scientists to 3D print collagen with bioactive glasses for bone scaffolds. Aside from collaborations, including the latest one with Ethicon, FluidForm has developed a commercial version of the FRESH support material called LifeSupport, which is already being sold through major bioprinter manufacturers Allevi (recently acquired by 3D Systems) and Cellink.

Cellink sells LifeSupport by FluidForm, which enables bioprinting with low-viscosity bioinks to fabricate complex constructs. Image courtesy of Cellink.