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Why manufacture in space? Space offers many unique conditions which alter the properties of materials manufactured. The two major conditions are lack of gravity and lack of contamination
Microgravity
Gravity causes properties familiar to all of us. One of which is the separation of fluids according to density. With the removal of gravity, alloys and mixtures of materials with properties incompatible here on Earth can be made, resulting in alloys or mixtures which have completely different properties than those found on earth. Other processes which benefit from a lack of gravity include welding, crystal growth, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, non linear optic and photonic materials.
Contamination:
Space is a sterile environment. Sensitive production such as semi conductors and biotech would benefit from not having to use expensive equipment to filter out harmful dust which is so prevalent on the Earth.
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