Our current Age of Information was built on the massive leap forward that solid-state technology enabled. Integrated circuits and microchips touch almost every area of our modern lives and global economy. The next-generation building blocks of 21st century electronics will be made in space, where the advantages of being in orbit allow the development of super materials that are a magnitude more efficient and powerful than anything that we’ve seen before.

Since the Bronze Age, humans have produced amazing blends of different metals. There are still many to be developed, but advances are hampered by the limitations of what can be achieved economically in Earth’s gravity and atmosphere. The manufacturing opportunities for novel alloys and superalloys in microgravity are almost limitless.