In-space manufacturing may sound like science fiction, but it’s already happening, albeit on a very small scale. It’s still a nascent market, with analysts and some startups predicting it’s about to take off.
“If you look at potential food products in the sense of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, beauty and health products, and new crops, the market could exceed $10 billion at some point in 2030, depending on how quickly it matures. we estimate,” said Ilan Rosenkov. , a partner of McKinsey.
Space offers a unique environment for research and development, as high levels of radiation, microgravity, and near-vacuum conditions allow companies to devise new manufacturing methods and materials that are not possible on Earth.
This practice is not entirely new. The International Space Station has hosted several experiments by academics, government agencies, and private customers to grow human tissue, produce purer semiconductors, develop new or better drugs, and more.President Joe Biden even budgeted for fiscal year 2024 $5 million Help NASA advance cancer-related research on the ISS.
However, access to the ISS is always competitive and interest continues to grow. Several space start-ups are now seeing opportunities to meet manufacturing demands in space using compact space factories. One company is Varda Space Industries in Southern California. Varda’s mission is to help pharmaceutical companies harness the unique properties of the universe to improve medicines and devise new treatments, and bring those substances back to Earth.
Reentry vehicle attached to Varda Space Industries’ first pharmaceutical manufacturing satellite and Rocket Lab Photon Bus.
rocket lab
Key to Varda’s business proposition is a phenomenon known as protein crystallization.
This happens when a supersaturated protein solution essentially evaporates to form a solid so that scientists can study protein structure. Understanding protein crystal structures helps scientists better understand disease mechanisms, identify drug targets, and optimize drug design. Think of drugs that have fewer side effects, are more effective, or can withstand more conditions, such as not needing to be refrigerated.
years of research We have shown that protein crystals grown in space are of much higher quality than those grown on Earth. The plan is not to manufacture the entire drug in space, but only what is known as the main active pharmaceutical ingredient, the part responsible for the therapeutic effect of the drug.
“You won’t see us producing penicillin or ibuprofen or any of these kinds of very common mass consumption targets. The amount of crystals we need to create far exceeds our current capabilities. ,” said co-founder and president Derian Asparoukhoff. Varda Space Industries. “However, there is a wide range of drugs that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue, and they fit aggressively within the scale of manufacturing that can be produced in our current manufacturing facilities.”
Of the hundreds of millions of vaccines in the United States in 2021 and 2022, Asparoukhov said, Pfizer The 2019-nCoV vaccine that was administered “was effectively less than 2 gallons of milk in the actual total amount of the actual crystalline mRNA consumable key pharmaceutical ingredient.”
Across the Atlantic, Space Forge in Cardiff, Wales is designing its own space factory to manufacture the next generation of semiconductors. Space Forge’s goal is to create semiconductor substrates using materials other than silicon to produce more efficient, high-performance chips.
“This next-generation material will enable us to create efficiencies never seen before,” said Andrew Parlock, managing director of Space Forge’s U.S. operations.. “We are talking about 10 to 100 times better semiconductor performance.”
A rendering of Space Forge’s ForgeStar production satellite.
space forge
As with pharmaceuticals, the secret to achieving this kind of performance enhancement in semiconductors lies in creating perfect crystals in space. This kind of advanced chip is important for industries such as 5G and electric vehicles. Like Varda, Space Forge plans to manufacture only part of its chips in space.
“Once we create these crystals in space, we can bring them back to Earth and effectively replicate their growth on Earth,” said Josh Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge. says. “So we don’t have to go to space multiple times to work with our FAB partners and customers on the ground to build a sizeable operation.”
To learn more about in-space manufacturing and Varda and Space Forge’s plans to make it a viable business, watch the video.
