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The startup space race and a push for innovative manufacturing are leading to a near future when several categories of products could be made in space.
Why It Launches: Technology, pharmaceuticals, and materials science are advancing so rapidly that manufacturing them in space may become the only viable option. That could fuel space commercialization multiples more than private travel ever could.
Behind the Assembly Line: Do you think there are tariffs in low-Earth orbit?
- Companies like California’s Astral Materials and Varda Space Industries, Florida’s Redwire, and the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult are all testing manufacturing products in space and novel ways of transporting material to and from space.
- Products that would benefit from the zero gravity of space include semiconductors, crystals, ultra-pure silicon, artificial organs, and experimental pharmaceuticals.
- Some tests have already been successful, such as Varda growing crystals of the antiviral drug ritonavir and China developing a new metal alloy aboard its Tiangong space station.
The Future: NASA has been experimenting with space manufacturing as far back as 1973. Only now has technology caught up with the ambitions. Mike Curtis-Rouse, head of in-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing at Satellite Applications Catapult, states that in-space manufacturing could become a $100 billion business by 2035. Considering that there’s currently no product manufactured in space that’s available to the public, that’s a major jump.
Prediction: By the next decade, there could be a dozen manufacturing facilities floating in orbit, manned mostly by autonomous robots.
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