Gloating robotic factory will build satellites and spaceships in orbit
This floating robotic factory will build satellites and
spaceships in orbit
Made in Space founders say 3-D printing will be key to
colonizing space.
The company's Archinaut system is a floating, robotic
factory that can build satellites in orbit.
Morgan Stanley expects the commercial space industry to
triple by 2040.
Katie Brigham and Lora Kolodny 9:31 AM ET Sat, 23 June
2018 CNBC.com
SpaceX is the best-known start-up in aerospace today. But
what comes after reusable rockets?
The founders of Made in Space say 3-D printing is the key
to colonizing space. That's why they are developing the Archinaut, a floating
factory to manufacture heavy equipment, even full satellites, in orbit.
The Archinaut is comprised of an industrial sized 3-D
printer, cartridges full of plastics and alloys, and robotic arms programmed to
assemble the big items extruded by the printer without any human supervision.
All of the Archinaut's components are rugged enough to survive in microgravity
and harsh conditions like lunar dust storms and extreme temperatures.
CNBC visited the Made in Space headquarters at Moffett
Field in Mountain View, California (NASA Research Park) to get a look at the
Archinaut as engineers prepared it for a thermal vacuum test and to speak with
Archinaut's creators.
Aaron Kemmer, Made in Space's co-founder and chairman,
said the company plans to have the Archinaut launched and cranking out large
items like trusses and reflectors for satellites within five years.
Eric Joyce, a project manager, added that the Archinaut
should also be able to help astronauts repair their spaceships without having
to improvise materials and take the kinds of risks that the Apollo 13 crew did
back in 1970.
Ultimately, the company aims to use Archinaut to build
entire spacecraft, space stations and habitats in orbit that can help people
get to the Moon and Mars leapfrogging between structures along the way.
Investors are lining up to invest in space tech, pouring
$3.9 billion into privately-held companies last year, according to a report
from Space Angels. Morgan Stanley forecasts that the commercial space industry
will triple in size by 2040.
But Made in Space is a rare bootstrapped business that's
growing fast in the industry. So far, the company has financed its operations
with a series of government grants, revenue from research and development
partnerships and sales of its services or systems.
Made in Space previously developed smaller 3-D printers
and installed them on the International Space Station. Those systems were used
to make items that researchers aboard the ISS needed to conduct science
experiments, among other things.
Today, it's expensive, and challenging to get even small
things into space. Every object must be strong and compact enough to fold into
the faring of a launch vehicle. Max Fagin, an aerospace engineer at Made in
Space, said most of those items can be made 10 times lighter and 10 times
cheaper, if they don't need to withstand the "shake, rattle and roll"
of a launch.
"It's an absolutely essential step in the future of
our species to inhabit every environment in the solar system that we can,"
Fagin said. "It's not going to be done by importing everything you need
from where you came from. It's going to be done by manufacturing what you need
where you need it."
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