Still, if Besxar's bet pays off, the company could rewrite the economics of chip purity and supply chain resilience, which is no doubt exactly why it has attracted so much early funding. Even if its ploy doesn't pan out, it's still a fascinating footnote — a real, expensive experiment in expanding where and how we build the world's most important technology .
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Zak Killian Contributor Zak is a freelance contributor to Tom's Hardware with decades of PC benchmarking experience who has also written for HotHardware and The Tech Report. A modern-day Renaissance man, he may not be an expert on anything, but he knows just a little about nearly everything.
bit_user LOL, if you think chips are expensive now , just wait until they start having to be made in orbit! BTW, can gamma rays cause physical damage to chip structures, at modern scales? IIRC, they can damage DNA, which means molecular-scale damage can definitely occur. That might be a downside they face. Reply
coolitic bit_user said: LOL, if you think chips are expensive now , just wait until they start having to be made in orbit! BTW, can gamma rays cause physical damage to chip structures, at modern scales? IIRC, they can damage DNA, which means molecular-scale damage can definitely occur. That might be a downside they face. It's trivial to shield interiors from gamma-rays… How do you think humans survive at all? Reply
USAFRet coolitic said: How do you think humans survive at all? 50 miles of atmosphere. Reply
bit_user coolitic said: It's trivial to shield interiors from gamma-rays… Yeah, maybe if you build the fab inside of a small asteroid! coolitic said: How do you think humans survive at all? Seriously, people are talking about building moon bases underground, in order to provide adequate shielding from cosmic radiation. https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/lunar-lava-tube-could-shelter-a-future-moon-base/ Reply
camilamartins8649 This could be the start of something huge. Space based chip manufacturing could solve so many issues with contamination and energy efficiency. Imagine a future where we have complete orbital factories producing high end tech components we are really entering a new era. Reply
thestryker I'm just trying, and failing, to think of what sort of manufacturing this could ever be viable for. I have no doubt that it would improve yields, but the sheer volume of manufacturing blows up logistics. This is without considering any logistics for setting up a fab in space. Reply
USAFRet thestryker said: I'm just trying, and failing, to think of what sort of manufacturing this could ever be viable for. I have no doubt that it would improve yields, but the sheer volume of manufacturing blows up logistics. This is without considering any logistics for setting up a fab in space. It will happen. Eventually . Decades and decades from now. Long after you, me, and Elmo are dead. Reply
bit_user USAFRet said: It will happen. Eventually . Decades and decades from now. Long after you, me, and Elmo are dead. If space-based industries continue growing, and especially if we're able to start tapping resources from asteroids, then it would certainly make sense to do manufacturing of lots of stuff in orbit. Even before then, I wonder if we'll see orbital recycling of defunct satellites and spent rocket stages. Some things would seem logistically simpler to do on the moon. Let's just hope it doesn't turn out like that 2009 movie with Sam Rockwell! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182345/ Reply
Notton Manufacturing in space won't be viable unless we figure out how to reduce pollution from the launches. Unlike commercial airplanes that pollute the lower atmosphere, rockets also release pollution into the upper atmosphere. Both are problems, but the higher up you go, the worse the effects are thought to be. Reply
bit_user Notton said: Manufacturing in space won't be viable unless we figure out how to reduce pollution from the launches. Manufacturing in space, for space, would reduce dependence on launches. Agreed about manufacturing in orbit, for consumption on earth. For that, perhaps a space elevator? I read somewhere that graphene is thought to have enough tensile strength not to tear under its own weight. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/elon-musks-spacex-to-launch-reusable-fabships-for-orbital-chip-manufacturing-experiments-besxars-orbital-chipmaking-experiments-to-occur-over-12-launches#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.