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Dr. Debbie Senesky’s eureka moment came not in a laboratory, but at the 2023 International Space Station R&D Conference, where she realized microgravity wasn’t just a challenge to overcome—it was a manufacturing advantage waiting to be harnessed.
“I was just blown away by the opportunities in microgravity,” says Senesky, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and electrical engineering at Stanford University and the principal investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory, where her work bridges the gap between extreme space environments and Earth-based applications in electronics, manufacturing and defense.
Engineering the Impossible
Venus presents the ultimate stress test. With surface temperatures of 480 degrees Celsius, crushing CO2 atmosphere and sulfuric acid clouds, it’s an environment where silicon-based electronics simply surrender. “Silicon-based technology is limited to particular environments,” Senesky says, noting that the limit for electronics sits at around 200 degrees Celsius—far below what’s needed for extended planetary missions to Venus.
These challenges aren’t confined to space. Hypersonic defense systems face similar extremes, with vehicle skins reaching temperatures well above 1,000 degrees Celsius. The radiation-resistant semiconductors developed for space applications translate directly to defense systems operating in hostile environments.
Zero Gravity, Maximum Potential
Senesky’s insight involves leveraging what makes space challenging—the absence of gravity—as a manufacturing tool. In microgravity, the physics that govern materials processing on Earth disappear. Heavy particles no longer sink (sorry, Turkish coffee lovers), heat doesn’t create currents and liquids float without touching container walls. These changes prevent contamination and enable more consistent processing, creating semiconductors with superior properties.
Over 180 experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have shown this potential, growing crystalline and semiconductor materials impossible to produce on Earth. The implications extend beyond space exploration to terrestrial applications requiring large, ultra-pure (or, bigger and better) materials.
Space Gets Cheaper
What makes space manufacturing viable today is the dramatic cost reduction in accessing orbit, according to Senesky. Reusable rocket technology has brought launch costs down to roughly $2,000 per kilogram (down from more than $100,000 in the mid-1960s), with Senesky estimating that costs could drop to as low as $10 per kilogram by the 2050s. This transformation in space access economics opens possibilities for manufacturing products in space that return to Earth with enhanced properties and potentially lower cost.
AI Takes the Helm
Artificial intelligence accelerates this progress by expediting materials discovery and enabling autonomous manufacturing systems. Rather than relying on costly astronaut time, AI-controlled robotics could handle complex manufacturing processes in orbit. “If we move away from crewed systems, autonomy, robotics and AI are going to be a big part of the picture,” Senesky says.
Critical Countdown
Despite these advances, she warns of a critical challenge. With the ISS facing decommissioning, replacement platforms remain underdeveloped. “If we’re decommissioning the space station in five years, why isn’t there a sustained commercial station today? It boggles my mind.”
Beyond Science Fiction
Even so, Senesky’s optimism about space manufacturing’s transformative potential remains undampened. Having experienced the rush of seeing astronauts conduct her experiments aboard the ISS—something she never imagined—she encourages up-and-coming researchers to think outside the box.
It’s a belief that goes hand in hand, in fact, with being a science fiction fan. Senesky is particularly fascinated by Battlestar Galactica and Dune, which feature narratives that capture what she sees as humanity’s inevitable shift from geopolitics to interplanetary politics as we expand beyond Earth. Such visions aren’t mere fantasy, she says—they represent the ambitious thinking needed to tackle the engineering challenges of becoming a multi-planetary species.
