The Kármán Line

The truth about in-orbit manufacturing and bringing stuff back to Earth


Listen Later

What is the “commercial paradigm shift” that transitions space research into commercial space production? How does this shift help build a global supply chain for high-value terrestrial industries? Why will manufacturing substrates like gallium nitride or diamond in space allow companies to bypass decades of Earth-bound defect correction research? How do we move from building complex, multi-million-pound machines that we burn up on re-entry to reliable methods for bringing satellites back to Earth for refurbishment, reuse and upgrading? And how do we do this while reducing the cost of return by a factor of 10?

 

Join Alice and Andrew Bacon, the CTO and co-founder of Space Forge, as they talk about building autonomous, “unscrewed mini-space factories”, super-clean environments, uniform temperatures and perfect material mixing, far away in higher orbit and safe from human contamination.

 

Contributors:

Alice Bunn, President of UKspace 

Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedIn

UKspace: Overview | LinkedIn

 

Andrew Bacon, CTO and co-founder of Space Forge

Andrew Bacon | LinkedIn

Space Forge | LinkedIn

 

Key topics covered:


  • In-orbit manufacturing
  • Ultra-vacuum/low contamination
  • Microgravity
  • Autonomous space factories
  • Innovation in re-entry
  • Low ballistic coefficient
  • Sustainability and the environment
  • Global supply chain
  • Commercial space production

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Kármán LineBy Haymarket Media Group Ltd