The future of manufacturing may be in space

Jessica Frick wants To build ovens in space. Her California -based Astral Mateials designs machines that can grow valuable materials in orbit that can be used in medicine, semiconductors, and more. Or, as she put it, “we build a box that makes money in space.”

Scientists have long suggested that the smaller gravitational environment in the Earth’s orbit can enable the production of high -quality products, which can be made on the ground. Space pioneers you tried CrystalsA decisive component in the electronic circuits – early in 1973, at the Skype Space Station in NASA. But progress was slow. For decades, manufacturing inside space was experimental, not commercial.

This is all ready to change. A group of new companies benefit from the low costs at all to space, as well as emerging roads to return things to Earth, to re -manufacture in space. Mike Cortis Rose, head of service, assembly, and manufacturing in satellite applications in the UK, says the field is more preoccupied. He adds that by 2035, “the expectation is that the global space economy will be a bill of dollars, which is likely to be manufacturing in the space area in the region is about $ 100 billion.”

In the simplest, its manufacture inside space indicates anything made in space that can be used on Earth or in the same space. The absence of gravity allows unique manufacturing operations that cannot be repeated on the ground, thanks to the interesting physics that are less than weight.

One of these processes is the growth of crystals, which plays a vital role in The manufacture of semi -conductors. On the floor, engineers take the crystallization of silicone seeds with high purity and silicon and dip them in molten silicon to create a larger crystal of high -quality silicone that can be cut into chips and used in electronics. But the effect of gravity on the growth process can make impurities. “Silicone is now suffering from an irrevocable problem,” says Joshua Western, UK CEO of Space Forge. “We cannot get it any purest.”

“You can increase the pressure on these crystals in space may lead to more pure chips:” You can press the re -adjust button almost as we think it is to reduce semiconductors, “says Western.

Crystal growth applications are not limited to semiconductors, but also may also lead to high -quality drugs and other material science breakthroughs.

Other products made in space can be produced with similar benefits. In January, China announced it had made Wonderful new metal alloy On the Tiangong space station, which was lighter and much stronger than similar alloys on Earth. The unique environment of low gravity can provide new possibilities in medical research. “When gravity is closed, you are able to manufacture something like the device,” says Mike Gold, head of the Redwire Civil and International Surveying Company, a company based in Florida. “If you try to do this on the ground, it will be crushed.”

One of the main challenges is to manufacture space in space how to get equipment to space and products to Earth in a way that makes production widely applicable. But missiles like Spacex’s Falcon 9 are The cost was dramatically reduced To reach the space, while companies including Space Forge and VARDA Space Industries are developing unavailable capsules Return to Earth.

Varda has already transferred two tasks to show this ability, which led to the bottom of the capsules to land in the desert of Utah and the Australian remote areas. In its first mission last year, the company has grown with crystals An antiviral drug called Ritonafir. Erik Laskir, chief revenue official in Varda, says that the potential benefits in the market and health benefits may be “very exciting” to products like this. “People can really help here,” he says.

As tropical manufacturing capabilities increase in the coming years, things can quickly hesitate. “I imagine that Orbit manufacturing will look like factories in space,” says Lasker. “You will see ready -made stations or vehicles. It is not difficult to see this future.”

However, this is the future. Currently, the manufacture of spaces “seems to be modern,” says Curtis-Rouse, but “I think very quickly, within 10 years, will be considered a work as usual.”