3 ms·

anyone have an example comparison of the economics of manufacturing Drug A on earth vs in space with launch and reentry costs included? Is the yield improved th

anyone have an example comparison of the economics of manufacturing Drug A on earth vs in space with launch and reentry costs included? Is the yield improved that much for certain pharmaceuticals? Is it because we can just yeet waste substances towards the sun?

colechristensen 3y ago
>Is it because we can just yeet waste substances towards the sun? It is actually quite expensive to get to the sun.
- stavros 3y ago
  How come? Don't you "just" have to escape the earth's gravity?
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    Orbital mechanics, Earth does not fall to Sun because it is going around Sun pretty fast. To drop in Sun you have to lose this velocity. And there is no mentionable drag. Kinda similar how satellites around Earth need to go fast too to stay up. Go fast enough and you get out, but you are still stuck with sun.
    - NamTaf 3y ago
      To expand on and put numbers to this: to escape the solar system from Earth, you need to add about 17 km/s on top of the energy you start with by working from Earth's orbital energy. Earth is going about 30 km/s around the Sun, which helps quite a lot! However, this also means that to hit the Sun, you need to remove more or less all of the energy that Earth starts you with. This is the key insight - if you do a bit too much or a bit too little, it slingshots around the Sun (getting close to it but not going into it) and stays in orbit rather than landing in the Sun.
  - colechristensen 3y ago
    Nope. You’re in orbit around the sun too. You have to modify your solar orbit so the short axis of your ellipse is close enough to fall in with atmospheric drag.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  You don't have to get to the sun. They said "towards" the sun.
  - rini17 3y ago
    Then that will become a piece of orbital debris, just on solar orbit. Unless you can accelerate it when it is near sun and thus yeet it away from solar system. Doubt that's cost effective either.
    - LoganDark 3y ago
      A piece of orbital debris that isn't bound to Earth isn't a piece of orbital debris that needs to be worried about anymore.
      - DANmode 3y ago
        Decent way to settle the alien life argument: send spam!
MaxLeiter 3y ago
The article mentions increased yield, but from what I can find on their website its mostly about the different crystal structures that result from zero g https://www.varda.com/biopharma#business-benefits https://www.varda.com/biopharma#business-benefits
rasmus1610 3y ago
https://www.notboring.co/p/varda-the-space-drug-factory https://www.notboring.co/p/varda-the-space-drug-factory This might be an interesting read. Can highly recommend this article
KennyBlanken 3y ago
It's absurdly energy-intensive to get something to fall into the sun, so there would be no point unless it was too dangerous to have on earth. If that were true, then the risk of launch failure, failure to enter and leave orbit, etc would be too great.
- XorNot 3y ago
  It's worth also qualifying that the opposite: leaving the solar system entirely - is actually less delta-V intensive to do. If you want to get something to leave and not come back, shooting it out of the solar system is the better plan.
wtracy 3y ago
It looks like improved yield, but also there's the possibility of producing a product that has different properties than that produced on earth. If, for example, the larger ritonavir crystals they can produce in space produce a dramatically more effective treatment, somebody's going to be interested in paying a premium for that.

colechristensen 3y ago

>Is it because we can just yeet waste substances towards the sun? It is actually quite expensive to get to the sun.

stavros 3y ago
How come? Don't you "just" have to escape the earth's gravity?
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Orbital mechanics, Earth does not fall to Sun because it is going around Sun pretty fast. To drop in Sun you have to lose this velocity. And there is no mentionable drag. Kinda similar how satellites around Earth need to go fast too to stay up. Go fast enough and you get out, but you are still stuck with sun.
  - NamTaf 3y ago
    To expand on and put numbers to this: to escape the solar system from Earth, you need to add about 17 km/s on top of the energy you start with by working from Earth's orbital energy. Earth is going about 30 km/s around the Sun, which helps quite a lot! However, this also means that to hit the Sun, you need to remove more or less all of the energy that Earth starts you with. This is the key insight - if you do a bit too much or a bit too little, it slingshots around the Sun (getting close to it but not going into it) and stays in orbit rather than landing in the Sun.
- colechristensen 3y ago
  Nope. You’re in orbit around the sun too. You have to modify your solar orbit so the short axis of your ellipse is close enough to fall in with atmospheric drag.
LoganDark 3y ago
You don't have to get to the sun. They said "towards" the sun.
- rini17 3y ago
  Then that will become a piece of orbital debris, just on solar orbit. Unless you can accelerate it when it is near sun and thus yeet it away from solar system. Doubt that's cost effective either.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    A piece of orbital debris that isn't bound to Earth isn't a piece of orbital debris that needs to be worried about anymore.
    - DANmode 3y ago
      Decent way to settle the alien life argument: send spam!

MaxLeiter 3y ago

The article mentions increased yield, but from what I can find on their website its mostly about the different crystal structures that result from zero g https://www.varda.com/biopharma#business-benefits https://www.varda.com/biopharma#business-benefits

rasmus1610 3y ago

https://www.notboring.co/p/varda-the-space-drug-factory https://www.notboring.co/p/varda-the-space-drug-factory This might be an interesting read. Can highly recommend this article

KennyBlanken 3y ago

It's absurdly energy-intensive to get something to fall into the sun, so there would be no point unless it was too dangerous to have on earth. If that were true, then the risk of launch failure, failure to enter and leave orbit, etc would be too great.

XorNot 3y ago
It's worth also qualifying that the opposite: leaving the solar system entirely - is actually less delta-V intensive to do. If you want to get something to leave and not come back, shooting it out of the solar system is the better plan.

wtracy 3y ago

It looks like improved yield, but also there's the possibility of producing a product that has different properties than that produced on earth. If, for example, the larger ritonavir crystals they can produce in space produce a dramatically more effective treatment, somebody's going to be interested in paying a premium for that.