A British startup has received funding for a completely unusual idea. What does she want to do forburge in the terrestrial orbit
Researchers from Space Forge (Photo Spleum Forge)
A British startup received $ 30 million funding to try a very bold plan: to produce components for chips in space. “The idea of producing chips in the orbit may seem science fiction, but its feasibility is known since the 1970s,” says the head of the company called Space Forge.
From artificial intelligence to electric cars, the demand for semiconductors increases a lot, but the silicon is close to reaching its limits, writes Techcrunch.
The production of more efficient chips requires new materials, much rarer than the sand, and the solution could be the construction of plates for chips, in space, more precisely on the terrestrial orbit.
Space Forge, a Welsh Company, received $ 30 million funding to start testing the idea.
The Tech site in Asia writes that this money will be used to develop the “tools” with which production should be made, and a first launch should take place until the end of the year.
Space Forge develops a reusable satellite of the size of a washing machine, which will be launched in the low orbit of the Earth (500–800 km altitude). There, in the absence of gravity and in a natural vacuum, semiconductor crystals with fewer defects and impurities can be increased.
These crystals can be used to produce more energy efficient chips, with up to 60% fewer heat losses, which would make them extremely good for many applications in fields such as telecom, defense or quantum calculation.
After the completion of the manufacturing process, the satellite returns to the ground with the help of a controlled re -entering system, similar to a umbrella, to ensure a “soft” landing and to allow the vehicle to reuse. But this is the theory: the implementation will require many correctly taken and will take a few years.
At Star Forge he also invested NATO INNOVATION Fund, and one of the partners he will work with is the American giant in the Northrop Grumman defense industry. There are also partnerships to launch the various components, because Star Forge does not have missiles and has no way to build.
The company also has plans for Europe. Last week he opened an office in Portugal, on the island of Santa Maria in the Azore archipelago, an ideal basis for the return of satellites to continental Europe and an important step to convince European partners that this approach can be “scaled” at industrial level.
The basic idea of the company is that sometimes, in space, the very special conditions allow achievements that would be impossible on earth.
