Space Factory is here

The British company Space Forge announced on the last day of December that ForgeStar-1, which it launched into space last summer, has produced its first promising results. The satellite is roughly the size of a microwave oven and contains a miniature factory designed to test the production of semiconductor materials under space conditions.

The satellite is equipped with a furnace that has been successfully heated to approximately 1,000 degrees Celsius. The company’s goal is to launch a larger satellite in the near future, enabling the manufacture of semiconductors in space that are about 4,000 times purer than those produced on Earth. The key lies in the microgravity environment of space, where atoms settle into a more perfect three-dimensional structure. Space conditions also result in fewer impurities in the material.

Space Forge plans to build a space factory capable of producing semiconductor material for up to 10,000 chips. The company is also developing a method to conveniently return the material to Earth; under development is an inflatable heat shield called Pridwen, which would protect the payload during delivery to the Earth’s surface.

In addition to semiconductors, producing pharmaceuticals and even artificial organs in space would be of interest. So far, the main obstacle has been the high cost of access to space, but current price levels already make small-scale space factories economically viable.

With the advent of new, even cheaper rockets, space factories are sure to become commonplace—first for high-quality, expensive specialty materials, and later also for mass production.