How Space Factories Are Becoming A Reality
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ค. 2024
- Space offers a unique environment for research and development because its higher levels of radiation, microgravity and near vacuum-less state allow companies to come up with new manufacturing methods or materials that are not possible on Earth. It's a fledgling market that analysts and several startups are predicting will take off. The market for materials manufactured in space could reach $10 billion by 2030, according to estimates from McKinsey & Co. In-space manufacturing is not entirely new. The International Space Station has hosted several experiments from academics, government agencies and commercial customers for things such as growing human tissue, making purer semiconductors and developing new or better drugs. But access to the ISS has always been competitive and interest continues to grow. A number of space startups see an opportunity to fill this gap for in-space manufacturing demand using compact space factories.
CNBC spoke with two such companies, California-based Varda Space Industries and UK-based Space Forge, to see how the startups hope to make manufacturing in space a profitable business.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
02:23 - Varda Space Industries
08:20 - Space Forge
12:45 - What's next?
Produced, Shot and Edited by: Magdalena Petrova
Camera: Andrew Evers
Animation: Jason Reginato
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Footage: Getty Images, NASA, Varda Space Industries,
Space Forge, Rocket Lab
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How Space Factories Are Becoming A Reality
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Imagine how good Heisenberg Blue will be when it's made in space.
They made glass beads that were "bubble jetted" in a vacuum, under micro-gravity. Having and exact size bead on a glass slide is very handy for microscopes. Millions of them in a small vial.
Those micro spheres could also make opals . Now I need a space opal
Are they like a rypert drop? Would they explode dangerously if sufficiently broken?
The European continent desperately needs a reusable rocket company, a lot of academics in Europe do space stuff and their only way up is Rocket lab or SpaceX.
They can probably set up a Mediterranean Starbase and pay SpaceX to send up rockets for them pretty easy. Way cheaper than developing a rocket of their own. Either that or go for the holy grail and lease land for an equatorial Starbase in Kenya.
@@anydaynow01, that's some good thinking. Elon is a simp for state money so we could just give him a couple of hundreds of millions for opening a new Starbase and he would probably do it. But the question is, would the price per launch be higher than in Texas or stay the same. The contract should stipulate a maximum price per kg launched for at least 10 years. So we either have some time to catch up to the Americans or are at least able to launch what we want into space for that period of time.
@@anydaynow01 Currently, lots of ESA missions launch from French Guyana, which is closer to the equator.
@@michasasak1609and why would he agree to a price cap? It is essentially a monopoly, he can set the price as high as he wants...else he won't do it...
Europe is dead, the future of the space industry belongs somewhere else.
I started watching this with the intention of mocking it or poking holes in it. After watching and doing additional research I was surprised at the progress and sound basis for the business. Also very impressed with CEO Will Bruey.
yes same
CNBC documentaries are usually better than expected.
I’m glad they didn’t mention Vera Space.
Same
They lost my respect at 5:39 when they started discussing how this technology could possibly be used to extend Merck's patents on their cancer drug. Profits above all else, even relieving human suffering.
Kudos to these people making futuristic bets, space science & tech is the next big revolution!
Our highschool rocketry team just took a tour of the SpaceX California facilities. It is most definitely a factory. They are pumping out rockets like iPhones.
Did they teach you how much methane rocket fuel each launch requires just to put 100kg in space?
@@janeblogs324it's mostly oxygen
@@janeblogs324That methane is going to be burned anyway. Might as well use it to forward humanity.
I used to do IT work for the local sheriff.
They straight up said that the red tape to get a relight ticket thrown out was so convoluted and deliberately obtuse that even for the officers it wasn't and option to get it thrown out.
The quote I heard from the guy in charge of the program was "i would rather pay your ticket than go through that process".
Never underestimate the greed of far off corporations
What?
@@themedicalmarvels lol sorry. This was meant for a completely different video. No idea how it ended up here other than bad UI design in the android app :)
This would be game changing for humanity
I agree!
not really
yes it would do you even know how much better it is and game-changing micro or zero-G is compare to what is down here?!@@pepsiman9840
lol@@pepsiman9840
@@JulianKazmier-vo3fn 'Humanity' has always been led by the riches.
0:01: 🚀 In-space manufacturing is a growing market with potential for significant growth in the future.
2:50: 🚀 Varda is using a spacecraft made of three main components to autonomously manipulate materials in space for protein crystallization, which can improve drug formulations and delivery.
5:37: 💼 Varda aims to revolutionize drug manufacturing by conducting it in space, offering potential financial returns and retaining patent rights.
8:08: 🚀 Space Forge aims to manufacture more efficient semiconductors using materials like gallium nitride and silicon carbide.
10:45: 🚀 Space Forge plans to use in-space manufacturing to produce semiconductors and other materials, with the potential to disrupt multiple industries.
13:22: 💼 Varda and Space Forge are working on manufacturing in space, but face challenges in reentry and FDA approval, and don't expect initial profit from manufacturing.
Recap by Tammy AI
Thanks.
Damn. AI recaps.
Dude, you're everywhere! I saw you on that Sabine Hossenfelder Faster than Light video. Thanks for your hard work.
@@TonyEllen990it's an AI
Humans are awesome.
I can't imagine what the world will be like in 2170 when so much of our current nascent projects and industries will be fully fledged by then.
That is of course if we’re still ok by then.
in 2170 the world will be... emptier.
@@-_James_-yep. Population crash is inevitable.
We have to solve climate change
@@krox477 no
I want more coverage and content like this
so just using space to prevent a drug from entering public domain, that’s innovative
Capitalism finds a way ❤
Space, adding a gram of hazelnut to the vat, making another form and colour pill....
people who want to keep earning bilions in revenue get creative af.
0:50 “near vacuum-less state”...??? Come on CNBC, get with it!
weird that this story ignores the 1 leader in the space, Redwire... redwire has this same crystal manufacturing facility on the ISS right now, and a 3d printer making cardiac material for a human heart, robotic arms, roll out solar panels, and much more
This must be an error at 1:53, saying that the number of patents referring to microgravity has increased "tenfold per year between 2010 and 2020". Google patents lists 193 patents containing "microgravity" filed in 2010, which would imply over 1 trillion such patents were filed this year.
10x more in 2020 than 2010.
Yeah, I think they meant to say tenfold between 2010 and 2020, rather than per year. English doesn't seem to be that guys native language, so it was probably just a mistranslation.
Math guy
Imagine space station based meant for food, medicine, manufacturing and resource refining, all from space stations constructing it in space.
It’s the future!
See Gerard K O'Neil.
Phineas and Ferb ice cream factory
This is hilarious because I am writting a scifi story that does just that. EPIC that I was literaly writing it this morning that exact detail. Honestly just to be able to weld without equipement is freaking huge
writers are oracles of the future 😊
This is very fascinating to me simply because of the shortages.
11:51 material for ~900k semiconductor devices per mission. And mission costs ... how much? Say $20M. That is tens of dollars per device in some of the required materials only, not the cost of production. Those must be some _very_ high margin devices...
Yes, but as more and more will use space for manufacturing, the mission cost will decrease A LOT. This happens with all new things.
@hkgamma this will not happen here. There is no magic solution to lift things into orbit without burning many tons of fuel.
@@PetrGladkikhNot yet.
@@PetrGladkikh well not now but there could be a time where we could get materials from the moon or able to capture asteroids from near earth or passing by like aphophis so well when it comes to this you need to think a lot of factors also we can use 3D printers to make capsules to send back to earth and keep a permanent mini factory in earth orbit
The French guy with the big hair reminds me of Giorgio Tsoukalos from Ancient Aliens.
They manufacture an old cancer medicine in space due to the lack of gravity and near vacuum being a pristine and sublime environment for crystal formation, allowing for the new, better version of this cancer medicine to be implemented in a easier method for the patients, saving time and money and effort for them and for the doctors.
Did I got that right?
Both are really awesome!
@0:42 love that zero gravity hair
Unless it becomes more than animations and stock footage, I remain highly sceptical that this will be ready by the early 2030's. Also the manufacturing will be limited by space & launch costs.
except for the part where it's gonna be like a handful of launches, and then they plan on replicating it on earth, so no more launches, this means the cost is gonna offset over time, it's not repetitive sustained launches
Varda's first capsule is literally in LEO right now waiting on FAA approval for reentry since FAA handles space launch and entry
Did you even watch the video or you just came straight to the comment section?
@@tomsriver2838 youve got it spot on tbh, the stuff in this guys comment makes no sense if you finish the video, or at least pay attention
@@tomsriver2838 what do you think? Did I?
Brilliant production.
This is absolutely motivating and promising
Gosh, I love humanity . Both are really awesome!.
I imagine the shipping costs would be pretty high.
Good piece CNBC!
Gosh, I love humanity ❤
I love half of humanity. The other half we have to babysit in order to not end all life lol
@@Mcfunface true :D
This video has almost nothing to do with humanity
I would argue that their motive proves opposite to anything good about humanity. For example their target whale for this is pharmaceuticals and they are most lucrative because of low ethical and moral conduct. This is a race for more profit and investment money. Nothing in this screams or seems to resemble something to love about humanity.
spoken like a true alien
Neat potential efficiency boost for semiconductors. That said - It will eventually make a lot of sense to eventually move many supercomputers used for modelling, neural net compute, etc. off planet. Anywhere a relatively small query leads to heavy computation resulting in a relatively small result and latency is less of an issue.
Can't wait to see "Made in LEO" on the box of my new CPU in a few years!
I just hope that they develop these amazing amazing concepts in a manner that ensures pollution doesn’t rain back to earth
These space craft burn up in the atmosphere
Or interfere with other satellites or future launches.
HAHAHA
@@phillipjones4279true, but as it burns, those chemicals are released into the atmosphere.
So while chunks aren't hitting people, there's still the potential problem over time of harm as these things build up.
While I don't think it means we should stop, it's certainly something to take into consideration and work to reduce.
@@tracy419 do you understand what the term parts per billion?
Every breath you take has trace elements, but they have such a small amount that they don’t affect you. We are talking about a few hundred pounds of metal spread out over a continent and 60 miles of atmosphere
Let’s say it takes 500 miles to break up times 60 miles of air with a width of 20 miles that’s a hundred pounds of metal spread out over 600,000 cubic MILES of air
That’s .00016 pounds of metal every cubic mile - there is a lot of air in a cubic mile
Yeah it’s the last frontier we as Mankind haven’t yet fully screwed up. Let’s put up more space assets up there. Kessler syndrome’s is a mere fallacy. Great one 👍 Humanity. We are the best and wisest.
I like the 'Made in Space' trademark. But technically everything can say that.
Im hoping for the day when Amazon/SpaceX/Virgin Galatic space soldiers get into lazer gun battles, just like in the James Bond Moonraker film.
reminds me of that metal "ufo" piece held by the US Army that was supposedly built in space.
A lot of these founders seem so young! Inspiring stuff
Vector Space Biosciences is at the top this game!
AWESOME CNBC ++++++++++++++++
Thank SpaceX for that… A great American company
Excellent video. 🙂
This is so much hot gas it could send the ceo to space.
Mark: Hey Bill
Bill: Hey Mark
Mark: Headed to work?
Bill: Yeah
Mark: Cool, where are you stationed today
Bill: Venus
Mark: Wowcha
Look, space is the next frontier.
13:42 the guy literally talking about how they're trying the best way to dodge taxes. Gotta love tech bros.
Rocket Lab is amazing
Satellite lunching capacities by Starship will make the type of the space factories very much possible and affordable !
Maybe, BIG Maybe.
Don't count chickens before they hatch.
@@jameskelly3502 It is still possible with falcon 9 rockets, they nearly launch rocket every week.
@justcallmebrian793 My comment was specifically about Starship. I never suggested Falcon 9 couldn't.
@@jameskelly3502why wouldn't it not work?
It's just for launching satellites?
You know the funny thing about starship is reusability and crewed versions. People forget it's expendable if you want. And that means deep space missions don't need to focus on the same lunar Lander costs
I'm sure full reusability will work but it's not completely necessary for every mission
@TheMagicJIZZ They said the exact same thing about the space shuttle back in the 70s.
Making drugs for the UTLTRA ULTRA RICH got to love it
Lets raise the costs of pharmaceuticals-what could possibly cost more?
Development of new pharmaceuticals as well as worldwide access to life saving drugs is inherently limited by private pharmaceutical companies
“The hotter a semi conductor gets the worst it performs” is not true at all
It needs to heat up to perform better, yes it needs an optimal temperature and overheating it’ll stop itself
But it needs to be hotter for max power
When I think about those pharamceuticals in space all I think about is how a single pill will probably be so laughably expensive
Apple thinking about making iPhones in space after this video
the guy's hair is anti gravity 😂
I wonder how will this affect space pollution around Earth. If things continue as is not only will we accelerate the likelihood of mission failure for subsequent launches of this nature. It could jeopardize potential future missions away from Earth. Are there any considerations for this?
Space debris is mostly a problem caused by mid to high orbit vehicles that will spend years or decades in orbit.
If the intention is for the vehicle to be in LEO for only a few months, then pollution becomes far less of an issue.
This is because any debris will reenter the atmosphere much, much sooner.
Responsible end of life for space missions has been part of curriculum for aerospace engineers for some time now, at least in the US. It is also federally regulated. I believe all missions must now either have enough fuel to deorbit and burn up or push to a "graveyard orbit" where they will not obstruct or interfere
So smart. The problem for manufacturing is the carbon emissions but if we move the factories to space the emissions just go somewhere else and save the earth. Love this
You know that chemical propulsion does a lot of harm to the atmosphere, right?
Varda's entire business case is predicated on how utterly immoral and unethical the preexisting privatized healthcare system dominant in America is, which is definitely something I'm super duper keen on investing in. Like, what... American boomers really do go out of their way to prove how utterly morally bankrupt they are like it's some kind of flex, I swear.
Are pharma companies outside of America not large and profitable?
@@CausticLemons7 It's less so. They still hold monopolies, but the amount of leverage they can get away with in the US via captive markets is actually insane.
Insulin is one of those issues. There's good reason why insulin is so expensive in the US, but in the UK the NIH negotiates the price and thanks to the fact that they are the only sole buyer, they can have leverage. Meanwhile, the richest country in the world, the US, has people sharing their last supply of insulin just so they can make rent
@@thanhavictus Not disagreeing but you didn't answer my question. Outside of the US, are there pharmaceutical companies that are both relatively large and profitable? If that statement is true then Vardas business model still has potential. Regardless of all that, if space manufacturing can improve human medicine then I believe it is worthwhile anyway.
@@thanhavictus Its not like that. Yall pay for health insurance through taxes. Your government negotiates the prices.
We pay health insurance through insurance companies. Insurance companies negotiates the prices.
If your not with a company, then the prices are often times insane.
The problem with American pharmaceuticals like insulin isnt because of the privatization model.
Its because the FDA enforces litteral monopolies.
Right now, insulin companies game the patent system so they can perpetualyl release the same product and hold the patents, while making it impossible to have generic alternatives.
Same with eveyr other drug.
I am not kidding when i say this, if the FDA was abolished and patents were fixed, American medication would be the cheapest in the world.
Negotiating medication prices is still goofy. Even in countries with universal healthcare.
If you think the American military is wastefull with its funding, imagine how wastefull a universal healthcare system would be in America.
AMAZING 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
So the Drugs Satellite from that video game is finally a reality
TIME TO #MARS !!!!
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
What if all factories, trash and pollution is take away from earth? Imagine the nature and beauty we will restore!
"Guys guys guys, let' see multiplantary!" Society "Ummm, maybe let's focus on maintaining this planet first."
It would be awesome if anyone were able to build a (or multiple) Death Star ⭐⭐⭐🤩🤩🤩
I will help mankind realize its potential.
Varda is quite close naming to Varta... 🤔
find that suprising that talk about a 70 employees compagny (Varda) then a 15 employes (space forge) but don't mention Redwire (well, half a sentence, just saying they exist) which have over 700 employe is a public traded enterprise having product already sold like deployable solar panel like the irosa on iss, that can be sold on satelite with a 3d printer to print the solar panel boom in space, and is also working on bioprinting in space or in pharma.
If the pharmaceutical industry is lucrative enough to deal with distribution costs and drug development in space, you know we have a problem.
IMO, 90% of health issues and chronic diseases could be avoided if people stopped eating processed foods. People underestimate how much processed foods they actually eat and they also underestimate the health consequences associated with its consumption in the long and short term. Not to mention people are addicted to it and don’t care enough about their health to actually try cutting it out of their life. The 20 minutes of pleasure they get from eating pizza and burgers outweighs the cancer and cardiovascular disease they’ll get from it down the road which is just sad.
I relearned to enjoy the flavor of simple fresh ingredients. Fruits and vegetables actually taste delicious when you’re not habitually overstimulated by processed foods that are created for maximum enjoyment.
Is ISRO a talented space organization? Have they done any space missions?
I don't understand these technologies improvements all I know is they're doing something in space
I love everything about CNBC your music voices particularly Magdalena your voice is awesome
Why haven’t we incorporated robotics with the iss yet?
Great. Keytruda can now make me throw up in my doctor’s office or in my home instead of a hospital…That is definitely worth keeping the price at 5,000 instead of $1. I’ll save the money and sit in the hospital, thanks.
Using rockets to get into space is far too expensive, we need to build an Orbital ring so we can all get into space cheaply.
That would be wildly expensive and require pretty much every government on Earth working in perfect harmony. Doubt we'll see that in our lifetimes!
It's not as expensive as you think, I point to the ISS as what can be done when humanity works together and puts the money into something big, an orbital ring is just a bigger version of the ISS, it would be a big project.@@gabrieldarcy9067
Have you seen the movie "Rampage" ?
How about "They Live" ?
The world has to move on to Type 1 Civilization, for humanity to survive
with a hair like that I thought the guy was in space at the beginning
To defeat cancer it requires a innovative perspective.
Amazing
A new hype just like others.
The next big literal gold rush and a bunch of other rushes is going to happen in space. What’s rare on earth is common up there. This is how we’re gonna save ourselves from tearing up our planet and turning it into to unliveable mess
“A huge backlog of people waiting to experiment in Space”
This sounds like a start of space horror film 👀
Love you CNBC and love your voice Magdalena
Scale seems like the biggest issue. How much are you getting from each rocket launch? 🥴
Well let’s assume starship is going to be ready by then it can lift 100 metric tonnes of material to earth orbit and 900k per launch of fuel lets add a million for random stuff so I think it’s worth it 100 metric tonnes worth of microchips is a lot let’s say 20 metric tonnes of it and the rest is simply mechanical
I want my PC to have a chip from one of those super wafers they are to make in space.
Until they get one of ASML's EUV scanners fully into space, you can wait a long time for such chips.
The EUV light source alone weighs almost 20 metric tonnes...
The entire EUV system needs 3 fully loaded 747s - how big is the ISS again...? 🤣
Great to see US industrialise again
So it's time for Anaheim Electronics
I guess these company have never heard of Kessler Syndrome.
Varda is not even making sense as a business model at all. He said they have 4 experiments per year. Space forge has 750,000 samples in one flight. Varda is a middleman in drug manufacturing, increasing the price. What are they solving the executive pay crisis???
Battlecruiser operational
what publicly traded stocks can be invested in this industry?
Interesting!
Elon Musk as usual with his Space X is ready to keep costs down.
Man we can't get the tech to clean up space garbage but we can put more crap in space!!😂
Apple SpacePhone with the A69 SoC
1:20 $5 million won't even buy them the propellant to launch stuff into space lol
if the forge fall on my home i will sue
Thing is, I just don’t think there is enough room up there right now for all this. I mean people don’t realize how lots of junk has made orbit congested
IDK, the giant ISS is doing just fine and geostationary is like a ghost town in comparison.
there is enough room space is really big they can probably just make it in low mid earth orbit to make the station there
I love the idea of space industries. For humanity to spread into the solar system, it would be a necessity. Earth is in the midst of a large extinction where animal life has declined on average 69% just since 1970 (excluding human animals) including flying insects responsible for pollinating the flowers of our most nutritious food products. The faster we can get industry off the Earth, the better. The planet's ecosystem is suffering badly reducing the diversity of life that supports as a whole, all life on Earth including us. Moving into space along with intense conservation practices may avert disaster in the near future. M.E.G.A. Make Earth Great Again!
This is amazing