As mentioned in a previous post we discussed briefly on in-orbit manufacturing being part of us being more responsible in space. In-orbit manufacturing is where we manufacture, repair and assemble structures, products and equipment in space whether it’s within Earth’s orbit or further out such as the Moon, Mars or some other celestial body.

In-orbit manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing, welding, machining and assembly are being developed by a variety of companies as Space Forge (1), DCubed (2), Orbital Matter (3) and Relativity Space (4). For a full list of companies who are involved in in-orbit manufacturing companies you can check out Factories in Space website (5).

Resupplying space stations within orbit manufacturing services would help make them less reliant on resupply missions from Earth. While launch vehicles are becoming more reliable there is that risk of it exploding during launch which means current in orbit missions need contingency. By having replacement parts and resources manufactured in orbit some crewed missions could have their needs met quicker and less risk of space station running low of supplies. Another benefit would be more capacity of launches for other missions like In orbit demonstrators, Earth observation etc therefore more missions could be catered for. We could also repair damaged components of space craft by manufacturing and installing replacements instead of risking the crew and craft during re-entry.

We could also see these space stations carry in-house development of new technologies as we could see new habitats and equipment being developed down here on Earth and the manufacturing out-sourced to an orbiting manufacturing facility. Engineers could have more flexibility and development times and costs could be decreased as they wouldn’t need to carry out mechanical tests and design for the stresses endured during launches. In addition these designs wouldn’t have to conform to volume restrictions of a launch vehicle or mass budgets to keep launch costs to a minimum. We could also see space craft developed with novel propulsion systems or even larger craft that could allow humanity to explore the solar system as we wouldn’t need to worry about launching the craft from Earth.

With low gravity we could develop new technologies and pharmaceuticals that would be impossible to make on Earth due to gravity. Microgravity in LEO could lead to breakthroughs in the semi-conductor industry by allowing us to develop more capable semiconductors with different materials other than silicone (6). New materials could be developed due to microgravity removing convection, sedimentation and buoyancy which can lead to better glasses and fibre optics (7). The novel Artemis by Andy Weir covers microgravity being used to produce fibre optics with properties that couldn’t be made on Earth (8).

In-orbit manufacturing could help make asteroid mining more viable as while the Asteroid Belt has vast quantities of minerals, mining them and sending the raw materials back down to Earth to be processed is probably not financially or economically sound as it would be easier to mine on Earth. With in-orbit manufacturing we could have processing satellites that could process the raw material in orbit and send finished goods back down to Earth.

Heavy industry is a massive pollutant but like it or loathe it for modern society to function we desperately need heavy industry. We can use technology to reduce it’s environmental impact but we could move some of it into orbit and ship the finished products down. We could see in-orbit manufacturing providing some help in reducing pollution.

Some of these ideas are basically sci-fi and a bit out there but I do see in-orbit manufacturing being a massive game changer with vast opportunities that we should be excited about.

References

1. [Online] Spaceforge. [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://www.spaceforge.com/in-space-manufacturing.

2. [Online] [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://dcubed.space/.

3. [Online] Orbital Matter. [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://www.orbital-matter.com/.

4. [Online] Relativity Space. [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://www.relativityspace.com/.

5. [Online] Factories in Space. [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://www.factoriesinspace.com/manufacturing-companies.

6. Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low-Earth Orbit for Terrestrial Use. Jessica Jane Frick, Gary Rodrigue, Curtis Hill, and Debbie G. Senesky. s.l. : Center for Open Science , 2023.

7. NASA. The Benefits of Microgravity (μg). [Online] 01 September 2022. [Cited: 20 May 2024.] https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/the-benefits-of-microgravity/.

8. Weir, Andy. Artemis . s.l. : Penguin, 2017.