The future of production may be in space
Jessica Farik wants To make a furnace in space. His company, California -based Astral Material, is designing machinery that can grow valuable materials in the circuit that can be used in medicine, semiconductors and more. Or, as she says, “We are building a box that earns in space.”
Scientists have long stated that the Earth’s orbit micro -environmental environment can make it possible to produce higher quality products from what it may produce on the ground. In early 1973, astronauts tested at NASA’s Skylab Space Station with crystals – an important component of electronic circuit. But progress was slow. For decades, space production has been empirical instead of commercially.
It’s all changed. Many new companies, such as ASTRAL, are using less cost to launch space, along with emerging ways to return things to the ground, to re -produce in the space. Mike Curtis-Ross, head of service, assembly and production at the UK-based research agency, says Catapult satellite satellite satellite is getting wider. He added that by 2035, “forecasts that the global space economy will be a multi -billion dollar industry, with production in the area probably about $ 100 billion.”
In the simplest, production in space refers to anything that is made in space, which can be used in the Earth or the space itself. The absence of gravity, thanks to the interesting physics of wireless, enables unique production processes that cannot be repeated on the ground.
One of these processes is crystalline growth – in particular, it produces seed crystals that play an important role in semiconductor production. On the ground, engineers take a high purity, small and silicone seed crystal and dip it into molten silicone to create a larger high -quality silicone crystal that can be crushed in wafers and used in electronics. But the impact of gravity on the growth process can introduce impurities. “Silicon is now an undisputed problem,” says Joshua Western, CEO of England Space Forge. “We basically cannot make it pure.”
“The growth of these seed crystals in space can lead to purer wafers:” You can almost press the reset button on what we think is a semiconductor, “Western says. “
Frick Astral plans to do this with a mini -refrigerator furnace that reaches a temperature of about 1500 ° C (2700 degrees Fahrenheit). Crystal growth applications are not limited to semiconductors but can lead to higher quality drugs and other scientific advances.
Other space -made products can be produced with similar benefits. In January, China announced that it built a new metal alloy at its Tiangong Space Station, which is much lighter and stronger than comparable alloys on Earth. And the unique environment of low gravity can provide new facilities in medical research. “When you turn off gravity, you can build something like a body,” says Mike Gold, head of the Civil and International Space Trade at Redwire, a Florida -based company that has been experimenting with space at the International Space Station for many years. “If you try to do this on the ground, that’s what you do.”
