Progress doesn’t stop at Christmas. While we were frantically buying last-minute presents and ensuring Aunt Maud was topped up with cheap booze, mankind took another leap forward, as an astronaut 300 miles above the earth was emailed a spanner.

If my last sentence makes as much sense as Maud on the cooking sherry, allow me to explain.

This incredible feat of manufacturing took place in zero gravity, thanks to the wonder of 3D printing; perhaps this decade’s most talked about new technology.

An astronaut based on the International Space Station wanted to replace a faulty piece of kit, but discovered he was without a crucial spanner to remove it.

In days past, they would have needed to wait several months for a supply ship to blast it into space, but this Christmas NASA had other ideas.

Within hours, its designers had created a mock-up 3D prototype on computer. This file was then emailed to the Space Station, where the astronaut used a 3D printer to make the item. In less than an hour, the printed spanner was in action.

3D printing is literally as it sounds; just like printing on paper, you can now make an object in three dimensions, with printers now working with a variety of materials, including plastic, ceramics and even cement.

The technology is now commonly used for prototyping in many industries and has even been used to create replacement hip joints and a jawbone in major reconstructive surgery.

In 2010, a 3D printer would have cost around £25,000, but today you can buy one that doesn’t require an engineering degree for just £2,000.

Yet, no matter how out-of-this world this literally sounds, this advance will transform our lives forever, because if a spanner can be made in space it won’t be long before we’re making bolts in Bradford on Avon.

As this year closes, I’d like to thank you for all the kind comments about Gadget Guy, and also thank my long-suffering parents, who are often the unwitting guinea pigs or comic relief at the centre of my technological tales. Next week I’ll be gazing into the future, to predict how digital Wiltshire is going to develop in 2015.