In-space industry turns final frontier into factory floor

Microgravity manufacturing is set to unlock a multi-billion dollar market for medicines, semiconductors, and other materials, reports Shine Jacob

-  Shine Jacob

When millions in India were watching what astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla was doing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in July, they would have noticed him seemingly tinkering with the contents of an enclosed glass box. Shukla was carrying out operations for research on how microgravity shapes muscle atrophy.

Such research could result in findings that help people suffering from age-related muscle decline or limited mobility.

Shukla, on behalf of Indian researchers, carried out experimental tests on muscle stem cells, sprouting methi and moong seeds, and whether microalgae can be used to produce food, oxygen and biofuels.

His work put the spotlight on microgravity or in-space manufacturing, the production of materials and products in a nearweightless environment to create items impossible to make on Earth.

Several private companies, including at least two Indian startups, are in advanced stages of building laboratories for microgravity manufacturing and experiments. In some years, the laboratories will act as factories in space for commercial production.

Pharmaceutical and biotech companies Merck & Co, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson to name a few-have used microgravity conditions at the ISS for research on drugs, manufacturing and materials.

Such research included crystallising proteins to determine their structure, testing drugs for bone loss, stability and packaging tests, studies on the immune system, and work on ageing and cancer. HewlettPackard and Airbus Defence and Space have conducted microgravity tests for electronics and semiconductors.

Growing sector