How different companies want to launch production in space

Factories in orbit still seem like a fantasy. However, a number of companies already have projects and developments in this area. Their implementation can be helped by the growing accessibility of space thanks to the development of commercial flights.

ABOUT mining in space they have been saying for a long time. Now, more and more often, we are also talking about the possibility of creating various production facilities in space. For example, components for electronics and medical supplies.

Space opens up the possibility of creating better products. This is explained by the special conditions in orbit – microgravity (that is, very low gravity compared to Earth), the ability to achieve almost ideal vacuum and low temperatures.

In addition, such space factories are also considered as an opportunity to remove some production from Earth in order to reduce the environmental load.

The first such projects have already been launched. Last week, the British division of the American military-industrial company Northrop Grumman announced about a partnership with the British startup Space Forge. They intend to start producing semiconductors in space.

Space Forge was created in 2018. To achieve its goal, it is counting on satellites that could be sent into orbit for six months and then returned to Earth. They should become a kind of automated factories for the production of materials needed for high-tech electronics.

The company already has one satellite ready – ForgeStar. Its launch into orbit is scheduled for this year.

“Space is much better (than Earth.— “Kommersant”) for almost any production process. We live on a planet where gravity affects us. We create ovens, refrigerators and vacuum pumps to help production on Earth, but in space you get all these benefits for free,” says Space Forge CEO Joshua Western.

Northrop will help the startup design and test microprocessors and provide “technical and business support” for the project. Northrop believes that although semiconductors created using components produced in orbit will initially be more expensive than their terrestrial counterparts, expanding production will eventually make them more affordable.

Last year NASA allocated $2 million to scientists from the American medical research center Cedars-Sinai to study the possibilities of growing stem cells in space. Researchers want to understand whether microgravity conditions can make this process more efficient.

As scientists note, microgravity in space imparts new unique properties to biological tissues and processes, which can be useful. Part of the research involves sending grown stem cells to the International Space Station (ISS) to study how their properties change under such conditions.

NASA also reported about plans to expand the commercial use of the ISS. Thus, modules for commercial research that can dock with the space station have already been ordered. According to Kevin Engelbert, who heads NASA’s space manufacturing program, the agency began collaborating in this area in 2016, and its goal is to develop the economy in low Earth orbit.

The pharmaceutical company Merck also cooperates from the ISS. The company’s research laboratory conducts experiments with the process of protein crystallization in orbit under microgravity conditions. According to study leader Paul Reichert, protein crystallization is used in the production of many drugs, and studying its properties in new conditions can make such drugs more effective. Another pharmaceutical company, Bristol Myers Squibb, is conducting similar tests in orbit.

The proliferation of such space programs is, among other things, due to the reduction in cost of space launches. This became possible primarily thanks to private space companies such as SpaceX. The ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2031.

According to some experts, the transition to using commercial space stations could stimulate the development of in-orbit manufacturing.

“Imagine that you have one business park and historically all the work and research is carried out there. After 2030, there could be four or five, says Es Sita Sonti, CEO of Space Tango, which plans to launch medical and technology products in space. “With more commercial space stations, the price and cost of both getting into space and carrying out this type of work there will be significantly reduced. The more flights we make, the more stem cells and drug samples we can place to look at their properties in orbit. It won’t be long before we see competitive offers.”

There are, of course, limitations and problems. As the experience of the Californian startup Varda Space Industries shows, they are more connected with bureaucracy than with technology. In mid-September, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) banned return to earth of the Varda production capsule launched into orbit using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Varda’s capsules were intended to be automated “cosmic drug factories.” In particular, it was planned to grow crystals of ritonavir, a drug for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis, in them. The FAA explained the ban by conducting an “overall analysis of safety, risks and possible impacts” and by the fact that by launching the capsule, the company violated some of the regulator’s rules.

“Under the old ways of doing business, even new activities in space can face familiar barriers… such as difficulties accessing new markets, the need for large financial investments up front, and a murky regulatory environment,” consider analysts at the consulting company Deloitte.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya