We'll be Building Self-Replicating Probes to Explore the Milky Way Sooner Than you Think. Why Haven't ETIs?

The future can arrive in sudden bursts. What seems a long way off can suddenly jump into view, especially when technology is involved. That might be true of self-replicating machines. Will we combine 3D printing with in-situ resource utilization to build self-replicating space probes? One aerospace engineer with expertise in space robotics thinks it could …