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Axiom Space pitches idea to produce chipmaking materials in space, plans trials aboard ISS
(www.tomshardware.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
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This seems like an insane idea, cosmic radiation causes so many measurable impacts even on earth with things like bit flips, this would be a huge issue in space with no magnetic field and atmosphere. I would think this would focus on low density slower speed chips, and likely avoid anything with flash storage.
That doesn't matter for the undoped crystal structure of the semiconductor material itself. It's like making low background steel: once it's made the radiation in the atmosphere won't mess it up. So then they bring it back to actually make the chips with.
Yeah, this is focused on the materials only. Can't get a better vacuum I guess.
There’s a possibility we could get new or more complex crystal structures by processing materials in space, getting more resilient or better properties to then be used in actual chips after it gets back to earth. Space factories will be more for material handling and processing than actual fabrication (minus deep space ship construction).