Manufacturing in Space

If you are reading this article in 2025 -2030, you may feel little awkward on the topic ‘manufacturing in space’. But, in future it will be a necessity. Manufacturing in space, is the process of producing or manufacturing products in space to overcome the effect of Earth gravity during the manufacturing process.

We are not going to discuss technical things in this article. But, this article will definitely will be an introduction to manufacturing in space.

Why should we go for manufacturing in space

Let’s discuss with an example. Suppose you took a glass of water, mixed it with sugar and stir it well with a spoon.

Will the mixing uniform for entire glass of water?

No. The particles will sediment to the bottom of the glass.

And this is due to gravity.

Now, just imagine we need a product, which is produced by mixing two material. If it is done on Earth there will be sedimentation at bottom. And, if a minute level of sedimentation is not acceptable during the process we need to think about another option where there is no or less gravity compared to earth.

Here comes the importance of Manufacturing in Space or manufacturing in microgravity.

Also another point is, the internal structure of metals and alloys will be different when manufactured in space (without or less gravity).

Gravity is not only the reason, it opens the door to explore new materials which is not available on Earth and also for manufacturing products for colonization in other planets.

The Process

Some companies have already started working on manufacturing in microgravity or manufacturing in space. Let’s have an overview of the process.

There will be a unit or equipment in which the manufacturing or production process will occur. This unit will be taken to space by rockets. Once it reach the desired location or desired level of gravity, the manufacturing process starts and completes the manufacturing.

After that the product and unit will be safely returned to earth.

Hope you got an overview of this interesting topic. Don’t stop here explore further on this topic.

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