Did you know, it costs around $2000 - $3000 to send 1 pound (0.45kg). think of the enormous costs and then careful calculations to make sure that the thrust is sufficient to get that weight into orbit so it can break out of the earth's atmosphere.
Working on this then the minimum cost to send me to space without any other equipment for me would be $660000. That's a lot of money. BTW, Elon says he can bring that down to $1000 per pound.
There is also the issue of planning, costs and reasons to get a space ship into space, which is probably the the reason why there aren't regular trips to and from the space station.
[Pinterest]
Thinking of these issues, lets talk about a situation a couple of years ago on Apollo 13 where an oxygen tank exploded in space in the command module, and the astronauts had to survive in the Lunar module and make a new carbon dioxide scrubber from found parts in the module, in order to get rid of the rising levels of CO2 in the module.
These were as a flight manual, a pair of socks, duck tape, hoses from spacesuits and other items that they found on board.
So I think we can all realize and admit that there are some serious issues getting needed equipment to people in space...especially in an emergency. It would have changed the situation on Apollo 13 if they could have been sent needed equipment, then the CO2 scrubber would have been a 'professional' installation rather than a hodge podge piece of equipment.
These days technology has allowed the teams to send something up to the space station at the speed of light! It could take a few minutes to get the items that they needed quickly and easily.
This would have been a huge blessing to Apollo 13....clearly.
Let me break off a bit on this to say this reminds me of an acquaintance of mine that started a relationship online about 15 years ago, and wanted to propose to the lady in the USA, and thought that when a person sent a fax, the actual piece of paper went from the originator to the receiver.
My dear friend thought he had a way to trick the system, and put the engagement ring INSIDE an envelope so that he can quickly and freely send the ring to his new fiance.
LOL! SOLVED!!
OK, he was badly disappointed.
How is this done?
Do you recognize this item? 
Credit
Well this is the answer.....a 3D printer.
NASA in 2014 sent a 3D printer, that was specifically made to work in zero gravity, to the space station and tested the efficiency of the 3D printer in space, and found that they were able to print a complex tool, a wrench. The reason this is complex is because it has internal moving parts.
The below pic is the actual link on NASA's website with the plans of the wrench:
[Youtube]
This is the printed wrench that NASA printed:
Credit
If you're interested to see if this wrench is workable, then here is a video of a guy that printed it out and tested it here and recorded the test.
Quite impressive in my opinion.
So NASA now has a working solution to get needed tools on demand to the space station. This is a brilliant solution to an otherwise very expensive and difficult problem.
Send the space station an email, let them print out the solution!
"So mom, today I sent an email to the space station......it saved their lives"
Pretty darn cool!
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