Jessica Frick wants Build stoves in space. Her company, California-based Astral Materials, is designing machines that can plant valuable materials on orbits used in medicine, semiconductors, and more. Or, as she said, “We are building a box that makes money in space.”
Scientists have long suggested that the microgravity environment of Earth’s orbit can enable the production of high-quality products to produce possibilities than on Earth. As early as 1973, astronauts experimented with crystals (a key component of electronic circuits) at NASA’s Skylab space station. But progress is slow. Space manufacturing has been experimental rather than commercial for decades.
All this will change. Many new companies are taking advantage of the lower costs to enter space, coupled with emerging ways to return things to Earth to reignite space manufacturing. Mike Curtis-Rouse, head of catapult orbit service, assembly and manufacturing for the UK-based research organization, said the area is getting busier. By 2035, he added, “the global space economy is expected to be a trillion-dollar industry, with manufacturing in space likely in the region of about $100 billion.”
The simplest, the manufacturing of space refers to anything in space that can be used on Earth or in space itself. Due to interesting physics, the lack of gravity allows for a unique manufacturing process that cannot be replicated on Earth.
One of such processes is the growth of crystals, which plays a crucial role in semiconductor manufacturing. On Earth, engineers take high-purity, small silicon seed crystals and immerse them in molten silicon to form larger, high-quality silicon crystals that can be sliced and used in electronics. But the effect of gravity on the growth process will introduce impurities. “Silicon has an unsolvable problem right now,” said Joshua Western, CEO of the UK company Space Forge. “We can’t basically be purer.”
“Planting these crystals in space may lead to more pure wafers,” the West said. “You can almost press the reset button we think is the limit of semiconductors. ”
The application of crystal growth is not limited to semiconductors, but may also lead to higher quality drugs and other materials science breakthroughs.
Other products produced in space may have similar benefits. In January, China announced a groundbreaking new metal alloy on its Tianhe Space Station, which is much lighter than comparable alloys on Earth. The unique environment of low gravity can provide new possibilities for medical research. “When you turn off gravity, you can make things like organs,” said Mike Gold, president of civil and international space operations at Redwire, Florida, which has been in space manufacturing for many years at the International Space Station. “If you try to do this on Earth, it will be squeezed.”
A major challenge in space manufacturing is how you actually bring equipment back to the space and products of the planet in ways that make production viable. But rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 have significantly reduced the cost of entering space, while companies including Space Forge and California-based company Varda Space Industries are developing untightened capsules that can return materials to Earth.
Varda has run two missions to demonstrate this ability to land capsules in the Utah desert and inland Australia. In its first mission last year, the company successfully planted crystals of an antiviral drug called Ritonavir. Varda chief revenue officer Eric Lasker said that for such a product, the market potential and health benefits could be “quite enormous.” “It really helps people here,” he said.
As track manufacturing capacity improves in the coming years, the situation may expand rapidly. “I envision a manufacturing facility on orbit that looks like a factory in space,” Lasker said. “You’ll see ready-made stations or vehicles. It’s not difficult to see the future.”
But that is the future. Curtis-House says space manufacturing still “looks like a novelty” at the moment, but “I think it’s very quickly that within 10 years it will be seen as business as usual.”
