British start-up plots to make computer chips in space
Modules in low Earth orbit can produce a vital tool to revolutionise the future. Howard Mustoe reports
Making computer chips from materials forged in space may sound like an idea from a science fiction novel but a British company is hoping to make it a reality.
Space Forge plans to send small, washing machine-sized modules into low Earth orbit, about 300-500 miles up, where gravity is low but retrieval is within reach. There, raw materials for semiconductor computer chips can be made more easily. Crystals key to making them can be synthesised with higher purity in orbit.
Josh Western, Space Forge’s founder, says: “A combination of the microgravity and the vacuum you find in space allows you to create incredibly pure crystal structures. Space effectively allows crystals to bond better with less contaminants.”
The full chip won’t be made in space, just the raw material.
Higher crystal purity means chips will produce less waste heat, which could save millions of pounds when operated. The amount of energy use could be slashed by up to 60pc
Western hopes the technology will lead to significant savings for applications such as 5G phone masts, radar and electric car charging. “Some of the chips in a 5G tower only run at about 8pc efficiency,” he says.
“Replacing those chips with spacemade ones, you can treble the efficiency in those applications.”
Vastly more computing power is also being put to use around the world, from developing artificial intelligence to modelling the weather, climate and conducting pharmaceutical research. Last month, Cardiff-headquartered Space Forge was awarded £499,000 by the Ministry of Defence as part of a project with US defence firm Northrop Grumman.
Once the process of forming the crystals is complete, the aim is for the module to be returned to the Earth “like Mary Poppins” with a deployable umbrella to slow its re-entry. The cost will be significant but the final price will depend on the complexity of the chip materials, how long the module stays in space and how many microchips a customer wants.
For short runs, “the value of the materials we’re looking at range anywhere from low hundreds of thousands of dollars per kilogram all the way up to multiple tens of millions depending on how complex that structure is you need,” Western says.
Once a batch of chips have been made in space, the material can be used to “seed” cheaper manufacturing processes on Earth. This lowers the cost of production dramatically while retaining most of the benefits.
California-based Varda Space Industries hopes to make pharmaceuticals in space, again making use of the low gravity. It launched a 300kg test craft in June. The craft contained a mini-factory to make Aids drug Ritonavir with the aim of creating a more stable version.
At its most basic, the process involves “mixing fluids together, mixing powders plus fluids, heating, cooling them, and stirring them” in what is effectively a “miniature drug kitchen” in space, says Delian Asparouhov, Varda’s co-founder and a partner at Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. No gravity means “you can heat two molecules up and they stay where they are very precisely, and then they combine exactly how you want them to”.
For making complex, expensive drugs for cancer patients and pain management, this is very important, he adds. The pristine environment of space means that drugs can be made with very dependable characteristics.
Products made in space could eventually cost as little as $60 (£47) a gram, Asparouhov predicts. Temperature readings sent to Earth suggest the process on Varda’s test craft was a success. “But Varda’s novel manufacturing method faces an unusual hurdle. Its module, and the drugs onboard, need permission for re-entry from the US Federal Aviation Administration and the US Air Force. Permission was denied earlier in the year and the module remains in space.
Dealing with a number of regulators has proved a headache, says Asparouhov. “This stuff is all written down in the US on paper, in theory, but we’re the first ones to actually go through this type of regulatory process. And it turns out, there’s just, you know, hiccups.”
The company hopes to retrieve the module early next year, likely touching down in Australia or Utah where there are large expanses of uninhabited land that a satellite can safely land on.
There are a raft of opportunities for manufacturing in space, says Tommaso Ghidini, of the European Space Agency. Ambitions for humans to eventually reach Mars creates opportunities for Moon-based manufacturing to supply missions en route. If humans do reach Mars, they must also make things there.
Longer time in space means you need more tools to fix things. The answer to this will be 3D printing both in plastics and metals, says Ghidini.
It will mean developing clever manufacturing techniques that use less power and can work with materials at hand, recycling metals on the moon as bases are built there.
“Everything that you launch to the space station costs a significant amount of money, but things fail,” he says. “On Mars, you cannot ship every possible tool. It’s much more effective to have a 3D printer with you.”
Luckily, the rocks that litter the Moon’s surface have a trove of raw materials including aluminium, silicon, iron, titanium, magnesium, calcium, and oxygen. Making use of them is the next challenge. Ghidini says: “Imagine having a workshop or a manufacturing plant on Earth. Imagine how much equipment you have there, how many processes you have to do before you have a final product.”
Space Forge and Northrop Grumman expect to take custody of space-made materials as soon as 2025.
“The opportunities are massive,” says David Pile, regional director for Northrop Grumman. The sky, it seems, is no longer the limit.