TEDxESA talk at the European Space Agency on 11 November, 2015: No matter what you take with you when going up into space, it’s going to be complicated and expensive. Very expensive. If we talk about longer missions, we better come up with something sustainable. Tommaso Ghidini, Head of the Materials Technology Section at the European Space Agency, might have an answer.

Tommaso and his team have already come quite close to realising this goal with some mind blowing 3D printing results. What’s even more interesting is that this technology is not only made for space, but can also be used in other environments.

The theme of the first official TEDxESA 2015 event was Science Beyond Fiction.

Tommaso Ghidini obtained his Ph. D. in experimental and numerical Fracture Mechanics at the Institute of Materials Research of the German Aerospace Centre. After having worked on major civil and military aircraft developments such as the A380, A350 and A400M at AIRBUS Industries, he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2007. In 2009 he became the VEGA Launcher Product Assurance and Safety Engineer and since January 2012, Dr. Tommaso Ghidini is the Head of the Materials Technology Section at the European Space Agency. The Section qualifies for space flight all metallic materials and related advanced manufacturing technologies and is in charge of the European strategic roadmap on 3D printing for space applications.