Welsh start-up aims to manufacture computer chips in orbit - Professional Engineering

Stock image. Space Forge aims to exploit microgravity to manufacture new alloys (Credit: Shutterstock/ NASA)

A Welsh start-up will take advantage of the space environment’s unique properties to build next-generation computer chips in orbit.

Space Forge, which aims to exploit microgravity to manufacture new alloys, is one of 21 organisations to receive a share of over £7m government funding for ambitious space projects.

Aimed at ‘putting the UK at the forefront of the latest advances in space innovation’, the funding has been awarded to ‘high-risk, high-reward’ schemes. The government hopes the projects could help fight climate change or address satellite communication challenges.

The Nexus project from Space Forge, which includes partners Compound Semiconductor, the Satellite Applications Catapult and AAC Clyde Space, hopes to build chips for terrestrial and satellite telecoms. The space environment allows unlimited crystal growth without gravitational induced defects. It also gives access to extreme temperatures of -263ºC to 200ºC, and offers a much better vacuum than terrestrial laboratories.

The project is developing a fleet of satellites, which it aims to launch and return to Earth.

Other projects receiving funding include Faraday+ from In-Space Missions, which will allow customers to upload software applications to satellites in orbit, and Surrey-based Global Satellite Vu, which will build a 130kg satellite with a compact, high-resolution infrared camera to measure thermal emissions from buildings.

“Space technologies have become deeply embedded in, and critical to, almost every aspect of our daily lives. With rapid technological innovation, space offers a broad and growing range of opportunities to support economic activity and protect the environment,” said Dr Graham Turnock, chief executive of the UK Space Agency (UKSA).

The funding comes from the UKSA National Space Innovation Programme, the first UK fund dedicated to supporting the space sector’s development of innovations. The government hopes the funding will create high-skilled jobs while developing new skills and technologies on UK soil.

An additional £5m of funding has been set aside for international projects, which will focus on increasing exports and securing new inward investment.

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