0

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

The benefits of manufacturing products in space are clear, but it’s still complex and expensive, this technology could help make space based manufacturing a commercial reality.

 

Over the past year or so I’ve been seeing more and more references made to not just space based manufacturing, but autonomous robotic space based manufacturing, with even the world’s richest Man Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, announcing recently that he wants to move heavy industry off Earth with his space exploration company Blue Origin. And now, thanks to recent advances in commercial spaceflight, which means private companies can send more equipment into orbit orders of magnitude cheaper than ever before, for example, thanks to Elon Musk’s SpaceX reusable rocket technology, a company called Space Tango has announced that it’s developing its own “autonomous, robotic orbital platform that will use microgravity to produce a range of items,” from materials to medicines, for a range of industries.

 

RELATED
Take a glorious Hi Def tour of the International Space Station

 

Set to launch sometime in the middle of the next decade, the company’s ST-42 platform takes advantage of new orbital manufacturing techniques that were first developed and mastered on the International Space Station (ISS).

 

 

Though commercial spaceflight has been around for some time, it’s been largely confined to building spacecraft, delivering payloads to and from orbit, or gathering data, such as real time global video surveillance, and real time radio tracking, that can be sold to customers. However, weightlessness, the ability to control the environment, and the other unique properties of space hold the potential for jump starting a whole new industrial revolution – something that wasn’t lost on a team from Australia recently when they had to sky dive from a plane to test the effect of gravity on the growth of Metal Organic Framework (MOF) materials that could hold the key to producing clean energy from fossil fuels, and revolutionising healthcare…

Since its deployment the 15 partners that run the ISS have conducted hundreds of experiments aimed at progressing the development of new “orbital industries,” as they’re becoming known, and now Space Tango is looking to take the next step of creating products for the biomedical and other technology enterprises using their own small-scale autonomous orbiting factory.

 

RELATED
USAF announces development of a new Mach 5 hypersonic missile

 

According to the company, the unmanned ST-42 will be used on a series of missions to orbit and then return to Earth. Early missions will be used to study technology applications and materials production, but later biomedical missions will adhere to the US FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations governing items made for patient therapeutics.

Space Tango hopes that ST-42 will not only help to develop a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) industrial sector worth billions, but also help advance all space based manufacturing endeavours.

“With our TangoLab product line on the ISS, Space Tango has begun to pinpoint the applications and understand the unit economics of building high value products in microgravity for Earth,” said Twyman Clements, president and CEO of Space Tango. “This platform [ST-42] is the logical extension of this work and will create a new category of capabilities for LEO commercialisation in the space economy. Our experienced team has crafted not only a vision for the future of manufacturing in space but procedures, partnerships and tangible plans for executing ST-42.”

Source: Space Tango

About author

Matthew Griffin

Matthew Griffin, described as “The Adviser behind the Advisers” and a “Young Kurzweil,” is the founder and CEO of the World Futures Forum and the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures consultancy working between the dates of 2020 to 2070, and is an award winning futurist, and author of “Codex of the Future” series. Regularly featured in the global media, including AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, RT, Viacom, and WIRED, Matthew’s ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of revolutionary emerging technologies on global culture, industry and society, is unparalleled. Recognised for the past six years as one of the world’s foremost futurists, innovation and strategy experts Matthew is an international speaker who helps governments, investors, multi-nationals and regulators around the world envision, build and lead an inclusive, sustainable future. A rare talent Matthew’s recent work includes mentoring Lunar XPrize teams, re-envisioning global education and training with the G20, and helping the world’s largest organisations envision and ideate the future of their products and services, industries, and countries. Matthew's clients include three Prime Ministers and several governments, including the G7, Accenture, Aon, Bain & Co, BCG, Credit Suisse, Dell EMC, Dentons, Deloitte, E&Y, GEMS, Huawei, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Lego, McKinsey, PWC, Qualcomm, SAP, Samsung, Sopra Steria, T-Mobile, and many more.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *