{"id":213446,"date":"2025-05-07T09:10:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/the-future-of-manufacturing-might-be-in-space"},"modified":"2025-05-07T09:10:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:10:24","slug":"the-future-of-manufacturing-might-be-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/the-future-of-manufacturing-might-be-in-space","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Manufacturing Might Be in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-future-of-manufacturing-might-be-in-space.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Growing these seed crystals in space could lead to much more pure wafers, says Western: \u201cYou can almost press the reset button on what we think is the limit of a semiconductor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frick\u2019s company Astral plans to do this with a mini fridge-sized furnace that reaches temperatures of about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,700 degrees Fahrenheit). The applications of crystal growth are not just limited to semiconductors but could also lead to higher quality pharmaceuticals and other materials science breakthroughs.<\/p>\n<p>Other products made in space could be produced with similar benefits. In January, China announced it had made a <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3293302\/gift-heaven-china-makes-first-industrial-grade-niobium-alloy-hypersonic-flight\" class=\"\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3293302\/gift-heaven-china-makes-first-industrial-grade-niobium-alloy-hypersonic-flight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">groundbreaking new metal alloy<\/a> on its Tiangong space station that was much lighter and stronger than comparable alloys on Earth. And the unique environment of low gravity can offer new possibilities in medical research. \u201cWhen you shut off gravity, you\u2019re able to fabricate something like an organ,\u201d says Mike Gold, the president of civil and international space business at Redwire, a Florida-based company that has experimented with in-space manufacturing on the International Space Station for years. \u201cIf you try to do this on Earth, it would be squished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Growing these seed crystals in space could lead to much more pure wafers, says Western: \u201cYou can almost press the reset button on what we think is the limit of a semiconductor.\u201d Frick\u2019s company Astral plans to do this with a mini fridge-sized furnace that reaches temperatures of about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,700 degrees Fahrenheit). [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}