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- Squeeze2664I'm only YouTube-level informed on how silicon manufacturing works, but something that is, perhaps intentionally, not made clear to someone unfamiliar with the field is that this is not manufacturing chips in space. This is to grow the crystals only, the very first step in silicon chip manufacturing. This is how you get the ingot, then you slice it to get the wafers upon which the chips are built. The reason you would even consider doing it in space in the first place is because, on Earth, gravity and other forces are stronger and result in lower-purity crystals. Basically, what I'm getting at, is that I believe this is pretty much a glorified oven. Moving the entire manufacturing process in space wouldn't make sense, as I don't think the benefits to other steps of the process like CVD would outweigh the insane costs of sending things into orbit.
- tomatotomato37I'm curious what the thermal management system on this looks like. On one hand, vacuum being in essence a perfect insulator works in favor of keeping the silicon hot for the very long time it takes to pull a boule while requiring very little energy. On the other hand, you have to make sure the control electronics don't also heat up to 1000C. I'm also curious how you keep the molten silion separate from the crystal without gravity keeping it in the crucible. I bet a lot of interesting engineering going on here.
- georgefrowny4000 times purer seems a questionable claim to me. 4000 times purer then what? Current Earthbound state of the art? A guy in shed with a vacuum pump and a heater? On what axis: crystal defects or contamination?High vacuums aren't at all impossible on Earth and silicon boules are already single crystals.What exactly about their process permits such a huge quality improvement?
- actionfromafarUK - the only country to achieve to-orbit capability only to shelve it after the first flight.
- VoidWhispererOne thing that is unclear to me from the article:Is the idea that it will manufacture all of these chips and then both the 'factory' and the resulting materials will return from space, or that the factory would stay in orbit and send materials back?
- rdiddly"This sort of semiconductor would go on to be in the 5G tower in which you get your mobile phone signal, it's going to be in the car charger you plug an EV into, it's going to be in the latest planes."LOL! Talk about an anticlimax. Either this is a lack of imagination on the CEO's part, or he's dumbing it down for us, or that level of silicon purity/regularity, is one of those nice-sounding but impractical Platonic ideals that ends up being kind of a waste. But it, and/or solving the attendant problems, might be an important precursor for some future innovation.
- metalmanI think that this is far from the first experiment in growing crystals in space, so they must have good evidence for what properties to expect from single crystal silicon grown in space, my guess is that the purity is not so much which elements are or are not included, but more the perfection of the physical crystaline structure, which may introduce the posibility of the crystal having different characteristics in different planes that can be exploited for various purposes.
- golem14This is a microwave oven. I wonder how feasible is to have a solar concentrator, if you can build it out of foil, mostly, like a light sail.You would have to 1) keep turning it toward the sun and b) reduce time in earth's shadow, which means a polar orbit?
- thayne> a heat shield named Pridwen after the legendary shield of King Arthur will be deployed to protect the spacecraft from the intense temperatures it will experience as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.Why bring back the entire spacecraft and not just the finished product?I'm also curious how they handle cooling the silicon, since dissipating heat in space is kind of difficult.
- MomsAVoxellThis is really, really exciting. The moment this spark ignites, it will herald a new reality for industrialization of space, and I for one cannot wait to see it succeed.One of the things I truly believe will elevate our species is space industrialization. If, in 20 years or so, we send a fleet of space furnaces to 16 Psyche [1], there is a very real possibility that we will be able to move a lot of Earths heavy industrial processes to space. Can you imagine - 3D printed Starship hulls being made from the immense resources of 16 Psyche?Literal pallets of iPhones being landed from near earth orbit.It sounds like whacky science fiction now, and for now it really is just that, but the launch and successful mission of Space Forge and other companies like it bring us all a single step closer to seeing that reality play out.I truly hope we can survive long enough to move heavy metal industry to space, and use that event to return the Earth to a garden state. It’s a long shot, but oh what a beautiful world it would be in 100 years time if this dream can be kept alive, and actually achieved.[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Psyche
- crote> "The work that we're doing now is allowing us to create semiconductors up to 4,000 times purer in space than we can currently make here today," says Josh Western, CEO of Space Forge.> "This sort of semiconductor would go on to be in the 5G tower in which you get your mobile phone signal, it's going to be in the car charger you plug an EV into, it's going to be in the latest planes."Okay, but, we have 5G towers, car chargers, and planes right now?I understand that purer material is better, but to what extent are the impurities of current wafer production methods limiting us? Why is shooting the furnace into space the best option? Why is making wafers 4+ orders of magnitude more expensive the solution we should go for?
- anthkThis is incredible, the huge temperature shifts often create either metal damage or explosions because of instant stretching.
- sandworm101Um... i see some red flags. This test to heat gasses in a furnace looks a little sus. It is basically a micowave oven ... in space!! My kitchen microwave can hit 1000c. Let styropyro at it and it could probably do 10,000c. Then i came across this gem on thier website.>> Radiators facing cold space can freely produce temperatures near absolute zero for ultra-fast curing without the need for cryogenics.https://www.spaceforge.com/I dont see a path to a product. I see a company farming investment and government programs with overhyped "experiments" that have been already done many times. They even talk about testing a heat shield for reentry as if that tech is somehow new. Want to bring samples back? Send your microwave to the space station and bring them back like everyone else.
- MORPHOICES“I've noticed the pattern of big technical ideas. They’re obvious in hindsight. They cost money early.” ~“What’s worked for me is a rough three-question filter,” Moxley continues,“What assumption would be most easily disproven if it’s false?” “WhatIs it something that can be cheaply verified in weeks, not months?“Who would notice if this quietly failed?”When I don’t skip this, what ends up happening is that I am endorsing the wrong thing. When I do, good ideas also die prematurely.What the others do, curious to see.Do you write out assumptions or is it an informal process?How early do you bring outsiders to poke holes?Any heuristics for distinguishing between "hard but right" and "just hard"?Examples always appreciated. Failures too.