Key to Varda's business proposition is a phenomenon known as protein crystallization.
This occurs when super-saturated protein solutions are essentially evaporated to form a solid so scientists can study a protein's structure. Understanding the crystal structure of a protein can help scientists get a better idea of disease mechanisms, identify drug targets and optimize drug design. Think drugs that have less side effects, are more effective or can withstand a greater array of conditions such as not needing to be refrigerated.
have shown that protein crystals grown in space are much higher quality than those grown on Earth. The plan is not to make the entire drug in outer space, just what is known as the primary active pharmaceutical ingredient, or the portion responsible for the therapeutic effects of a drug.
"You're not going to see us making penicillin or ibuprofen or these types of very generic mass consumption targets, given the amount of crystalline you need to create is far beyond our current capabilities," said Delian Asparouhov, co-founder and president of Varda Space Industries. "But there is a wide set of drugs that do billions and billions of dollars a year of revenue that actively fit within the manufacturing size that we can do even on our current manufacturing facility."
Asparouhov said that in the U.S. in 2021 and 2022, of the hundreds and millions of doses of the Covid vaccine administered, "the actual total amount of consumable primary pharmaceutical ingredient of the actual crystalline mRNA, it effectively was less than two milk gallon jugs."
Across the Atlantic in Cardiff, Wales, Space Forge is working on designing its own in-space factory to manufacture next-generation semiconductors. Space Forge's goal is to make semiconductor substrates using materials other than silicon to manufacture more efficient, higher performing chips.
"This next generation of materials is going to allow us to create an efficiency that we've never seen before," said Andrew Parlock, managing director of Space Forge's U.S. operations . "We're talking about 10 to 100 X improvement in semiconductor performance."
Just like with pharmaceuticals, the secret sauce to achieving this type of performance improvement in semiconductors lies in creating the perfect crystals in space. These types of advanced chips are important for industries such as 5G and electric vehicles. Similar to Varda, Space Forge plans to manufacture only part of the chips in space.
"Once we've created these crystals in space, we can bring them back down to the ground and we can effectively replicate that growth on Earth," said Josh Western, CEO and co-founder of Space Forge. "So we don't need to go to space countless times to build up pretty good scale operating with our FAB partners and customers on the ground."
To learn more about in-space manufacturing as well as Varda and Space Forge's plans to make the practice a viable business, watch the .
