Scientists and heads of technology corporations consider the launch of industrial enterprises into space a reality

What if the best way to protect our planet from the influence of civilization is to leave Earth? At least that part of the infrastructure created by man that pollutes the environment. It is about industrial production. Leaving the Earth does not mean sending plants and factories to unknown distances - we are talking about the development of asteroids and near-Earth space .

It sounds like science fiction, but over the past few decades, a lot of science fiction ideas have been realized, including ubiquitous communications, miniature electronic devices, and the study of Mars using robots. Scientists believe that if some types of industrial enterprises would move into space, it would help the Earth a little clean. One of the adherents of this point of view is NASA ex-employee Phil Metzger, who worked at the agency for about 30 years.

“The solar system makes it possible to create production capacities that are many times greater than those that we now have on Earth. If we talk about the planetary scale of human activity that is already happening, we can think about trying to start developing asteroids and planets, ”he says.

The problem is not only, for example, in metals, but also in energy. If computer technology will be introduced at the same pace as it is now, then by 2040 the Earth will not be able to provide the energy needs of such infrastructure .

Gradually, everything is moving towards the fact that mankind will more and more actively explore outer space, and sooner or later it will be possible to expand industrial enterprises outside our planet. The development of asteroids, for example, is not a fairy tale at all - Planetary Resources Inc. raised tens of millions of US dollars for the implementation of such a project. It is not yet clear how quickly all this can be organized, but there is no doubt that the idea is gradually turning into practice.

In addition, many countries are interested in mining on the moon - these are the USA, Russia, China, India. Some are interested in helium-3 as a source of matter for future thermonuclear reactors. But on the moon and besides this a large amount of resources. There is even water here, of course, not in liquid form, but as ice.

Interested in space and the planets of the solar system, not only the governments of different countries, but also private business. So, Elon Musk, the head of SpaceX, believes that on Mars you can establish a colony of people and produce the things necessary for the colonists right there. Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon and Blue Origin, is investing billions of US dollars in space technology. According to him, it is necessary to go into space, first of all, for energy resources. “The fact that the Earth’s energy resources will sooner or later be depleted is beyond doubt. This is arithmetic, it will happen, ”he said.

There have already been attempts to produce something in space. So, in 2014, the startup Made In Space, Inc. became the first company to manage 3D printing under zero gravity. Representatives of the company then said that they had completed the "first step, which will allow to take production" on request "into outer space." It is still about small "workshops" that carry out orders of astronauts or colonists, but that’s the point. NASA concluded with Made In Space, Inc. contract to create a system that is capable of printing metal parts from 30 different materials, including titanium, aluminum, steel, thermoplastic composites.

If you use lasers, you can turn ice into water, and then decompose it into hydrogen and oxygen, the ingredients of rocket fuel. That is, you can cook fuel directly in space.



Well, the idea of ​​deploying energy stations that turn the light of the Sun into electricity, right in orbit, appeared at the beginning of the 20th century.

Of course, the creation of objects of this scale alone, by the forces of even a very rich company, is impossible. “Creating an industrial infrastructure in outer space will require the consolidation of the efforts of many companies, as well as the ideas of talented scientists. But you need to start small, ”says Daniel De Latte of Draper Laboratory.