Boxing clever

5 June 2013 - The first rule of DIY: know where your tools are. Astronauts on the International Space Station are about to have that task made a lot more simple, with a purpose-designed 3D-printed toolbox due for launch today on ESA's latest ATV resupply spacecraft. The strong, lightweight multitray toolbox was printed in ULTEM 9085 thermoplastic by Thales Alenia Space in Turin through an ESA contract. It was then tested by labs in ESA's ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, for 'offgassing' - the release of potentially harmful vapours in the closed environment of the Space Station - to be sure it is safe for use in orbit. "The toolbox is designed to store tools for maintaining Europe's Columbus research module," explains ESA's project leader, Bram Bekooy. "At the moment, there are five separate bags that tools are stored in, but crewmen have complained in that this set-up is cumbersome and time-consuming. "The new toolbox includes little clips to hold the tools in place, just like toolboxes you can buy at a hardware store, instead of the previous Velcro inserts that may lose their stickiness over time.