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This small, glowing space shuttle model
starts from virtually nothing, until a 3D printer
-- or desktop fabricator -- deposits material layer by layer.
A platform moves in three directions underneath a heated
nozzle that squeezes out glow-in-the-dark plastic material, much like a
fancy cake decorator. It goes rapidly from left to right, and
front to back, following a computer drawing and printing one layer
of the model at a time. The platform inches down
a bit as the three-dimensional build-up continues.
The crowning glory? Watch for it...
the shuttle's vertical tail.