Redwire Sells Space-Manufactured Optical Crystal

Redwire Corp., a publicly traded space infrastructure company, reported the first sale of its space-manufactured optical crystal offering to researchers at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS), an electron microscopy facility at The Ohio State University. The transaction recorded 2 g of space-manufactured crystal that was sold to Ohio State. Based on the sample size sold, the space-manufactured crystals have an approximate value of $2 million per kilogram.

The space-enabled optical crystal was manufactured in Redwire’s industrial crystallization facility onboard the International Space Station.

The transaction marks the first time that a space-enabled materials product has been sold on Earth.

Space-manufactured optical crystals could provide significant improvements to high-power, large laser systems used on Earth; the high-energy laser market is seeing strong growth with an increasing number of terrestrial applications, from advanced manufacturing and machining to weapons systems.

These laser systems are enabled by high-efficiency laser lenses produced using optical crystals, Redwire said.

Redwire sold space-manufactured optical crystal to researchers at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS), an electron microscopy facility at The Ohio State University. The space-enabled optical crystal was manufactured in Redwire’s industrial crystallization facility onboard the International Space Station. Courtesy of Redwire.

Currently, optical crystals manufactured on Earth have lower damage thresholds due to gravity-induced inclusions and defects, which limits the output of high-power laser systems since the lenses are subjected to laser-induced damage. Space-manufactured optical crystals could improve system performance due to their higher damage threshold and fewer inclusions and defects, enabled by the space manufacturing process.

CEMAS researchers will study the space-grown crystal and compare it to Earth-grown potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals using aberration-corrected electron microscopy to observe atomic-scale differences in impurities and defects between the two materials, something that has not yet been achieved.

The space-manufactured crystal presents an opportunity for CEMAS to build the group’s capabilities for analyzing materials manufactured in space and those that could be returned from asteroids, the moon, and Mars in the future. The insights from this research could also inform the development process of space-manufactured optical crystals to optimize future products.