why space matters
Manufacturing
What if you could create new materials that were impossible to synthesize on Earth? And what if they had revolutionary industrial, commercial, and medical applications for people around the world? That is the promise of orbital manufacturing.
For example, in a microgravity environment, superior fiber optic cables can be manufactured from heavy metal fluoride gas (rather than the more common silica-derived cables made on Earth). On Earth, the manufacturing of these fibers is compromised because bubbles and crystals form in the material due to the force of gravity. But in space they can be produced more smoothly and clearly, with far fewer defects. The company Made In Space conducted the Optical Fiber Production in Microgravity investigation on the ISS in 2018 to prepare for large-scale manufacture of high-quality fiber optics in orbit. Space is also already the ideal environment for additive manufacturing using a 3D printer, without the need to support complex structures in a gravity well, and without the need for them to fit in the printer .
Today, companies like Orbital Assembly are even creating systems for manufacturing new structures in space, creating more opportunities for other companies to cost effectively establish their own space stations for orbital research and manufacturing. Space matters to the future of innovation.
