I’m just confused about what products can be manufactured completely autonomously, in a 0G environment, and are profitable enough to make space-based manufacture economical.
Made in space? Start-up brings factory in orbit one step closer to reality
Submitted 2 days ago by Gsus4@mander.xyz to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62vx0pgyrgo
Comments
echodot@feddit.uk 1 day ago
MangoCats@feddit.it 1 day ago
Unobtanium…
Making things that can only be made in 0G, then bringing them back to Earth to sell.
I suspect the manned ISS isn’t too keen to add a continuously operating 1000C furnace component to their collection of modules.
vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
Solar energy for computation perhaps, but cooling would be too expensive.
In an existing ecosystem of space mining and processing of all required elements, with no need to exit gravity wells, could be microchips. I don’t think we are closer to that than Vinland settlers were to thirteen colonies.
frongt@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Anything, because it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than launching finished products from Earth.
NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
in space there are no labor laws.
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
True but why bother keeping a pesky human alive when you can just automate everything and keep all the money for yourself?
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 2 days ago
i guess its time to start a space labor union
SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Call it Beltalowda
njordomir@lemmy.world 1 day ago
They’ll staff the space factories with felony convicts, kidnapped non-citizens, and orphans who don’t have a place to stay. In addition to your proposed union I would like to see a “made with space-prison labor” disclaimer on these productsm
SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Never trust the endeavors of the bourgeoisie.
Seems they’re wanting to put the means of production somewhere where regulations and oversight are simply too impractical to do.
echodot@feddit.uk 1 day ago
The thing is if space-based manufacturing became the norm then it would cease to be impractical to implement regulations and oversight. The reason it’s difficult to do now is because getting to spaces difficult, but for space-based manufacturing to be feasible that problem already has to be solved.
Auth@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Pretty interesting. How come they can get 1000c in space but not on earth? Doesnt the vacuum of space make it hard to retain heat?
Gsus4@mander.xyz 2 days ago
Vacuum is a perfect thermal insulator. The only real losses are radiative.
Auth@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’m completely unaware of the science around it all but none the less its exciting stuff, i hope to read more about it as things progress.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Heat is so easily retained in space that when the Shuttle launched they only had 4 hours to open the cargo doors to expose the radiators or the cabin and electronics would overheat and they would have to scrub the mission. They never had to scrub for that reason though.
Decq@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The article doesn’t state they can’t reach that temperature down on earth, and many processes do. It’s really not the jist of the article. Space manufacturing is interesting for the micro-gravity and better vacuum/less contamination. .
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
We’re on path to The Expanse timeline:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6722NAzNXck (spoiler, obviously)
spoiler
Basically a station was striking and demanding better worker rights, the UN Earth Government sent a spaceship, tried to jam their surrender call, then blew up the entire station for “being hostile and refusing to surrender”. They had children on the station.
CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 2 days ago
We can finally make endo steel chasis!
epicthundercat@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Ew… Aliens don’t need more human garbage. Have you seen how much space junk we have?.. We already look like the universe’s junk yard.
Kirp123@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The only ones that junk is a danger to is ourselves. Kessler syndrome is no joke.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Except it kind of is.
It can’t really happen at very low earth orbit, where the majority of satellites are, as any imported space junk would deorbit relatively quickly. And it can’t really happen at geostationary orbit, where most of the rest of them are, because when you go out that far there’s just so much space between every single object… The only way you run into something out there is on purpose and after a lot of calculations.
So there’s medium orbits and higher LEO those are the only areas we need to be really careful with.
GreatWhite_Shark_EarthAndBeingsRightsPerson@piefed.social 2 days ago
Finally, like SciFi series ‘Star Trek’ & Etc.
Only problem is all the garbage already in space, damage! I assume better for the environment, even with environmental cost putting all that into space. Robots not our species working there.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Interesting. Having something that can only be manufactured in space would be a real motivation to getting off our asses and back up there.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Hell yeah! Actual useful industrial endeavors are the way we finally get humans off the planet, this is the way to the future. Once there’s a reason for industry in space, there’s a reason for support industries, construction, material supply, fuel supply, maintenance, etc. With those support services comes reasons for people to start to actually live in space, where they work. And from there, we can start to spread our legs and really “move in” to solar system, and the story of the human race truly begins.
Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Can’t wait for variable mortgage rates, but on mars.
I’m mostly joking, I think it’s great if we can become space farers, just can’t help but think about what we did the last time we were out colonizing…
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
And how much space junk will end up there? Cleaning up afterwards costs more money and long term thinking isn’t something shareholders care about over more profit today.
The tech is interesting, hopefully governments across the entire planet regulate it well enough. Although at the same time, its not like we really need to care either. In our lifetime its not like any of us are likely to be able to afford to go to space anyway
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It shouldn’t be too hard to engineer orbit decay as a feature to avoid space junk.
Consider that space junk is so sparce it’s not really much if a consideration for launches. It’s like the rings of Saturn: the likelihood of a collision is so remote that they didn’t even consider it when we had a satellite move through it.
MrSmith@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Why? Why do we need to pollute the earth even more so that the capitalists can gain more capital outside of it?
We have crises here that are only exacerbated by this dumb need to send people to space.
Gsus4@mander.xyz 2 days ago
Space used to be cool when it was the playground of scientists and engineers. What made it all vomit was the privatization of astronautics to the worst possible assholes.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
The human race is capable of doing more than one thing at a time. That we aren’t working on solving our many crises has nothing to do with whether or not we’re in space. You’re tying together two issues that have absolutely nothing to do with each other.