Created: 2024-07-24
Updated: 2025-09-06
Company - Astral Materials (Astral Forge)
Product/Service
- Classification
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Category
- In-Space Manufacturing
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- Not announced
- “Our technology utilizes microgravity as a manufacturing tool that can only be accessed in space,” Frick said in a statement about the partnership with Sierra Space. “This partnership with Sierra Space is a fantastic opportunity that allows us to focus on our strength: microgravity crystal growth.”
- Under the agreement, Astral Materials will work with Sierra Space on designing projects that could be flown on Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser vehicle. The agreement could also include cooperation on how to incorporate semiconductor manufacturing technologies into systems Sierra Space is developing for commercial space stations.
- Parabolic flights, which simulate microgravity for short periods, will allow Astral Materials to assess key furnace technologies before future demonstrations on the International Space Station or other commercial spacecraft.
- The company aims to use space's low gravity environment to address challenges in semiconductor crystal growth, a process critical to producing high-performance electronics.
- Astral Materials will test the furnace’s ability to confine molten metal in microgravity, evaluate its cooling system, and validate thermal models. The experiment will also assess hardware functionality, including an arc melting system, cameras, and sensors.
- While the primary goal of the flight is hardware validation, researchers will analyze silicon samples synthesized during the test to establish baseline performance metrics for future space-based production.
- The company does not anticipate significant improvements in crystal quality from the initial flight but expects the data to refine future experiments. Key metrics include furnace operability, repeatability, and the correlation between gravitational conditions and crystal formation.
- The furnace must be capable of heating silicon to at least 1,420 degrees Celsius for short durations in microgravity. It will also incorporate real-time monitoring through sensors and cameras, contain molten silicon at a fixed point, and produce spherical silicon samples.
- The project is scheduled to run through February 2026. Work will take place at Astral Materials’ facility in Mountain View, Calif.
SpaceWorks to Fly In-Orbit Manufacturing Tech in 2026-07-15.
- For Astral Materials, the mission’s baseline goal is to build flight heritage of its semiconductor crystal manufacturing technology, but Astral’s fingers are crossed that the reentry mission will result in real products it can sell.
- “We have customers who are interested…[But] since it will be our first time in orbit, we are not promising anything.” Dr. Jessica Frick, Astral’s cofounder and CEO, told Payload.
- Ultimately, Astral succeeds by building a reliable supply chain from space, Frick said, which depends first and foremost on having partners that can return their semiconductor crystals unharmed and on time.
Status Comment
Notes
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