When Josh Western and Andrew Bacon set up Space Forge, they had a garage to work in, but little else. The two entrepreneurs from Wales have raised over seven million dollars in international seed-funding and are planning to expand.
The financing will allow the company to start a project in which new materials can be manufactured in outer space and then brought back to Earth. The first missions will be done by the end of 2022.
Western said that Earth is a wonderful place to live on but terrible for manufacturing. You have to fight gravity while trying not to cause pollution. In space, you have no gravity to interfere with the mixing of materials, and you have a pure vacuum. You can turn your instruments towards or away from the Sun to heat or cool them.
The issue is getting into space. The UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency have backed Space Forge, which believes it can provide the answer. The craft will travel more than 300 miles above Earth.
They will exploit the simple launch systems being developed by Virgin Orbit. Small rockets are carried into the upper atmosphere and then fired into space. The vehicles will circle Earth for a few months. Inside the little craft, automated robotic systems will direct the manufacturing and testing of components that cannot be made on Earth.
It should change the way materials are made. Western said that the International Space Station has shown the value of space manufacture. Fluoride glass fibres are used in communication systems. They are a bit cloudy on Earth. Those made on the space station transmit signals 10 to 100 times better.
Our vehicles are designed to make materials like that.
Space Forge will release details of the finances it has raised from US, UK and other investors, including the US-based SpaceFund and the Berlin-based World Fund. The chief executive of the UK Space Agency said international investors are impressed. The investment was four times oversubscribed and millions of pounds were secured to support the company on the next steps of its journey.
The point was supported by Western. Hopefully, we will be able to get our first ForgeStar into space by the end of 2022.
