Browse Resources by Country

A longer-term (20-30 years) market for manufacturing in space has attracted some interest. For the most part, attention has focused on the innovative materials that can be produced on orbit. As demonstrated on the space shuttle and ISS, microgravity environment in space allows for the homogenous mixing of metals, the growth of pure crystals, and contamination-free processing in general.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, in combination with GPS tracking, are slowly beginning to be used more in logistics. Because RFID tags can be read at small distances, their use would greatly simplify and automate much of the tracking work.

NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) is designed to encourage private investment in space transportation. Currently, no privately developed rocket is capable of meeting NASA’s needs, but the agency is pursuing agreements for capability demonstrations and hopes to find a contractor for ISS resupply by 2010.