Satellite ‘space factory’ could create advanced tech that slashes billions of pounds from energy bills | Science, Climate & Tech News

An enterprise that started with ‘Two Block in A Cardiff Garage’ is about to start a game -changing spatial factory that can start a new industrial revolution.

Space Forge will send its prototype manufacturing satellite from an industrial park in the city to the US in the coming weeks, where it will be sent to a orbit Spacex rocket.

Sky News gave exclusive access to the dust -free ‘clean room’ of the business to see how engineers do final checks.

Forgestar-1 is already loaded with the raw ingredients to make a new generation of super-efficient semiconductor chips that would be impossible to produce on the planet’s surface.

Company co-founder Joshua Western said: “This is the next industrial revolution, but it is in space, it is not on earth.”

Semiconductors are found in almost all electronic technology. They are currently produced from silicon crystals, but the material has a ceiling.

However, in the micro -sagging and vacuum of space, it is possible to make crystals from a new mix of chemical compounds that can make computer chips work faster while using less power.

“We can reduce the energy consumed where they are deployed by more than 50%,” Joshua said.

‘In the UK alone, we speak billions of pounds saved in the energy account alone.

“It is in terms of consumer mobile data, but also data applications that are really (energy) hungry – artificial intelligence, quantum computer science and to people who use chatgpt at home.”

The prototype will test the process of making the material, and it gets the first advanced manufacturing license by the Civil Aviation Authority.

If it works, the next mission is for rights, and produces pure crystals that can be cloned to the earth to meet a great question.

The company believes that such high -grade material for electronics could be worth up to £ 45m per kilogram, which far exceeds the cost of launching on a rocket.

But to bring such a precious load back safely to the planet, the company had to design its own lightweight heat shield to resist high temperatures as it dropped through the atmosphere.

It is called Pridwen, named after the shield of King Arthur, and it is folded, origami-style, in a small space until needed.

Then it jumps open like an umbrella to protect the satellite and slow it down so that it splashes gently into the ocean, where it can be picked up.

Forgestar-1 is a pioneer.

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The UK’s satellite applications Catapult, which supports space companies, says everything from stronger metal alloys to powerful cancer medicine can be made in space in the future.

Nafeesa Dajda, head of missions at the Catapult, said Britain is taking the lead.

“We can communicate from satellite technology anywhere on earth,” she said.

‘There is now an opportunity to think about how we use space in a different way, and the unique environment with which space offers us, the micro -gravity environment, means we can do things we just can’t do on earth.

“How big can it be for the UK then? Big.

“We have estimated that the event is worth around £ 20bn for the British economy over the next ten years.”

At Space Forge HQ, the team will be eager to see their satellite leave to the US after years of development work. It is a story that could come directly from Silicon Valley.

“It demonstrates what some guys who started in a garage on the outskirts of the city when they got bored one night in the bar could actually do,” Joshua said.

‘There is now an optimism with technology (in the UK) that we have not always had.

“There is a new life in the industrial basis, especially around engineering, and this is despite all the challenges it has now.”