We are developing a reusable manufacturing satellite that uses the benefits of space to make new materials that are not possible on Earth.
Created: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2024-07-06
Company - Space Forge
Product/Service - ForgeStar, Aether
- Classification
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Category
- Microgravity Flight Service (LEO)
Microgravity Flight Service (Reusable Satellite)
In-Space Manufacturing
- Fields
- Reusable
Space Capsule
Orbital Microfabrication
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2024
We make super materials in space that cannot be made on Earth. Our vision is to harness the benefits of outer space to improve life on our planet, by producing new materials that can be used on Earth.
- "But we will be in orbit within 18 months certainly. "Some parts have arrived already and we’re setting up the clean room, which is almost ready for us to start assembling things – we can produce three ForgeStar Ones at a time in there.
- "By 2025 we want to be doing 12 missions to a year and by the end of the decade they'll probably be weekly. With that said we've probably already met our capacity here so we're in discussions with the Welsh Government about finding a new space for us."
Reuters: World’s first reusable satellite to offer in-space manufacturing.
Semiconductors
"Each mission is capable of producing more than a million [semi-conductor] chips per flight."
Microgravity as a service
Aether
- The next-generation prediction system.
- Precisely engineered tracking, capture and recovery.
- Designed for convenience, cost and customer satisfaction.
- Speedy return of your payload post mission"
ForgeStar-0
- The spacecraft will test the company’s proprietary re-entry shield, which during future operational missions would protect a satellite traveling through the searing heat of the atmosphere, targeting a landing ellipse of just hundreds of meters.
- While the exact technology is under wraps, Western says each shield has an “umbrella-like” deployment, unfurling upside down ahead of the spacecraft to start. Then, once through the thick atmosphere, the shield doubles as a parachute, slowing the spacecraft for a gentle touchdown.
- ForgeStar-0 will be purposefully oriented to burn up in the atmosphere, providing useful data points about how the shield copes with re-entry. But a true test will come possibly as early as next year, when the company launches its ForgeStar-1 satellite to demonstrate in-space production of semiconductors, which have a 10-to -100-time performance improvement over semiconductors made on Earth.
ForgeStar-1
- The microwave-sized ForgeStar-1 satellite contains a miniature, automated chemistry lab that will allow the team to remotely mix various chemical compounds and develop new semiconducting alloys once the satellite is in orbit.
- But rather than sending the materials back to the planet, ForgeStar-1 will beam the results of these experiments to scientists digitally as this satellite is not designed to return to Earth.
ForgeStar-2
US Office
The Cardiff, Wales-based startup focused on fabricating high-value materials in space is looking for a U.S. location for manufacturing ForgeStar satellites and payloads for U.S. customers.
- “We’ve had a lot of taps on the shoulder from both government and commercial players that are interested in our core capabilities,” Space Forge CEO Joshua Western told SpaceNews.
- Space Forge intends to manufacture semiconductors, alloys and biological materials in orbit.
- An upgraded version, ForgeStar-1A, is scheduled to launch later this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare flight. ForgeStar-1A will demonstrate Space Forge’s in-space manufacturing capability and gather safety data, Western said.
ForgeStar System
- As opposed to ablative heat shields, like those used on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which require replacement after each mission, Space Forge says it built its “Pridwen” heat shield to be large enough to radiate away the heat generated by atmospheric reentry. The shield, made out of a high-temperature alloy, was designed to fold inside the launcher for lift-off and unfold when the spacecraft makes its return to Earth.
- Moving away from ablative heat shields is one way Space Forge hopes to set itself apart from its competitors.
- The company has also developed an uncrewed water vehicle, “Fielder,” which will maneuver itself under ForgeStar and “catch” it in a soft landing. The idea is to reduce stress on sensitive payloads inside the vehicle as much as possible, while also reducing the need for spacecraft refurbishment.
- “The space station is a great laboratory, but it’s not a factory,” Bacon said. Nor is in-space manufacturing as simple as turning a Dragon capsule, the most-used cargo and crew vehicle in history, into an orbital factory. The capsule simply isn’t optimized for it — on cost or engineering, he explained.
- In addition to cost, the mechanics of Dragon’s reentry could pose problems for some materials, like live biological cultures. “We’ve spoken to biological customers who’ve lost their three-year in-development experiments in the last millisecond of landing,” due to the high-shock of landing, Bacon explained.
National Microgravity Research Centre
Status Comment / Notes
ForgeStar-0 was on a failed Virgin Orbit mission and did not make it to orbit. ForgeStar-1 with re-entry capability is better in-scope for this database.
Sources
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News, Research, Projects and Patents
Title | Type | Date | Summary |
---|---|---|---|
What goes up … | Article | 2022-08-01 | > In-space manufacturing is reaching a crucial point. Dozens of companies are now developing technologies to make use of the microgravity environment to beat the efficiency and quality of goods and materials made on Earth. The question has been how to bring products home safely in sufficient quantities. Jonathan O’Callaghan tells the story of two startups vying to show the way. |
Manufacturing in space: Space Forge’s incredible plans to make next-gen super materials beyond the Kármán line | News | 2022-02-11 | |
Space Forge: orbiting factory will make products that are out of this world | News | 2021-10-01 | > An autonomous space factory that harnesses the lack of gravity to create high-performance products impossible to produce on Earth is under development with British government funding. |
Towards a carbon negative future: How Space Forge plans to utilize in-orbit manufacturing and microgravity for the clean industrial revolution | Article | 2021-03-04 |