Space Manufacturing China to Construct Factory in Space

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Manufacturing in space is the latest area in which China has begun a race with the USA. Scientists from the Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have now tested a module for "workshops in space" that can be launched into orbit in a folded state and only inflated once there.

In China, as in the USA, where they are already a few steps ahead, there is hope to produce particularly pure materials for semiconductors, vaccines, cancer drugs, and other items in space in the future. Weightlessness can enable technological breakthroughs in the manufacturing of chip crystals or in the field of 3D printing that are not achievable on Earth in this form.

A cylindrical core module for a "reconfigurable flexible manufacturing platform in orbit" was recently successfully ground-tested in China, researchers reported in early November on the website of their Institute of Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). It had a diameter of two meters. Several of these are intended to be later combined in space to form complete space factories.

Factory Modules in Space Inflatable

Plans for space manufacturing had previously progressed slowly, primarily due to the high costs of transportation into space. This bottleneck is precisely what the invention of the Beijing researchers addresses. Their module can be folded, transported into space with a carrier rocket, and then inflated there. The module is said to be made of "ultra-flexible composite materials with a steel skeleton and a state-of-the-art fiber shell."

China demonstrates with these efforts that it does not want to leave the relatively new field of space manufacturing to the USA alone. In 2023, the California-based company Varda Space Industries had a satellite called "W-Series 1" launched into orbit, which it calls "the world's first space factory."

In the course of these and other missions, Varda has already succeeded in growing crystals for an antiviral drug called Ritonavir, used to treat HIV and Covid-19. "What we're doing in space can really help people down here," said a company spokesperson in an interview. The U.S. company brings the products back with capsules that land in the Utah desert or the Australian Outback.

Utilizing Weightlessness for Manufacturing

China also holds great hopes for the future of space-based industry. The new manufacturing platform is said to be ideal "for future space-based mass production of biopharmaceuticals, 3D-printed products, and new materials," according to the Institute of Mechanics.

Possible products include particularly powerful telescopes, extremely lightweight radio antennas, and artificial organs, which are said to be even better manufactured under the conditions of weightlessness.

Whoever masters the capability for space manufacturing will gain the initiative in the future development of the space economy.

Scientists from the Institute of Mechanics, CAS

But not only such specialized products for transport back to Earth, components for the expansion of further space stations, unmanned Mars probes, and base stations on the Moon could also be manufactured directly in space in the future, project leaders believe.

Space Manufacturing With A Total Value of 100 Billion US Dollars

"Whoever masters the capability for space manufacturing will gain the initiative in the future development of the space economy," the researchers write. In both the USA and China, there are consistent forecasts that space manufacturing could grow to a total value of around 100 billion US dollars by 2035.

You can hit the reset button on what we currently consider the limit of a semiconductor.

Joshua Western from the English company „Space Forge“

Breaking the Boundaries of Semiconductor Manufacturing

Especially in the field of semiconductor manufacturing, which is currently experiencing a new demand boom thanks to artificial intelligence, manufacturing in space could become crucial in the future. Currently, on Earth, small seed crystals for silicon wafers are dipped into molten silicon to produce a larger crystal of the highest possible purity. However, contamination occurs, and all improvement attempts have currently reached a plateau.

Weightlessness in space could soon enable even purer silicon wafers. "You can hit the reset button on what we currently consider the limit of a semiconductor," Joshua Western from the English company "Space Forge" recently told Wired magazine.

Henrik Bork, longtime China correspondent for Süddeutsche Zeitung and Frankfurter Rundschau, is Managing Director at Asia Waypoint, a Beijing-based consultancy specializing in China.

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