| Abstract Scope |
In-space manufacturing is often presented as a near-term commercial opportunity, but most activity to date remains experimental. This presentation gives a historical and statistical overview of in-space manufacturing, covering both new materials made in space for Earth and construction of large space infrastructure. Using authors' Factories in Space, the largest public database tracking in-space manufacturing activity since 2018, the talk summarizes the status and trends of companies, projects and technologies. The presentation reviews key examples, including optical crystals, latex spheres, protein crystals, fibre optics, additive manufacturing on the ISS, early welding experiments, and commercial station and lunar infrastructure plans. It also compares different application areas and discusses the technical and commercial barriers to recurring production. The main argument is that in-space manufacturing is becoming broader and more commercially visible, but it is still far from recurring production with stable supply chains, qualified processes, repeatable quality control, and clear customer demand. |