True, I should have said the goal is self replication and each RepRap version intends to get one step closer to achieving process. All the parts that are within the limitations of the machine are replicated and a community has been established to trade such parts. I do apologize for coming off as trying to push a sensationalist headline.
Don't apologize. Usually those behind the effort really try to play this up. I personally think the approach is flawed.
I would start with a real factory that can make everything in the factory. It would probably be the size of a big building.
Just like the first computers.
Refine the components, and make it smaller and smaller.
The initial goal shouldn't be a tiny maker, but something light enough to send to Mars or the Moon. I've been told (by one of Hod Lipson's students actually), that NASA estimates such a factory today would weigh in at 100 tons. That seemed small to me. They should try to make this.
It's the first thing you'd need to make if we knew of a big asteroid that couldn't be stopped.
