A real little space factory. The Franco-Luxembourg start-up Space Cargo Unlimited, headed by Nicolas Gaume from Bordeaux, presents this Thursday its new project, REV1, “an autonomous platform allowing companies to produce in space. The objective is to make this vehicle operational by 2025.
“This space vehicle weighing less than three tons will be reusable twenty times and will remain in low orbit, a few hundred kilometers above sea level, for two to three months for each mission,” announced the start-up. The contract for the manufacture of REV1, an autonomous vehicle without an astronaut on board, has been awarded to Thales Alenia Space (TAS), a specialist in pressurized modules, announced the start-up.
“Space exploration is on the way to democratization”
The ambition of REV 1 is to allow manufacturers to produce in space, and therefore to take advantage of the absence of gravity, in fields as varied as biotechnology, agriculture, pharmacology and new materials.
“Space exploration is on the way to democratization, assures the company. Increasing research and development activities are made possible thanks to reusable launchers. Morgan Stanley estimates that space manufacturing will be a $10 billion market by 2040. We believe the market could be up to twice that size by 2035.”
The Wise mission had already sent 320 vine plants into space
Space Cargo Unlimited has already carried out a first experiment in “space production”, with its Mission Wise. The latter had sent, in November 2019 then in March 2020, 12 bottles of Petrus vintage 2000, then 320 vine plants – 50% merlot and 50% cabernet sauvignon – on the ISS. The shipments had been recovered in January 2021, then the 320 vine plants had been replanted in the greenhouse, in order to compare their growth with 320 other vine plants remaining on Earth.
“We have been able to observe that our space plants develop much more quickly than those remaining on earth, and that they put in place appropriate responses to external aggressions” explained Nicolas Gaume to 20 minutes in June. They could thus provide answers to certain diseases such as mildew, or to the constraints of global warming.
The company now plans to bring these more resilient Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot shots to market in 2024.