[fsh]

The best silicon single crystals still contain impurities at the 1E-11 level. This project is about doing crystal growing in low gravity (the ultra-high purity is only achieved due to the growth process). The vacuum of space is a lot worse than what can be achieved in the lab, especially in low orbits.

[twic]

There have been experiments to create higher vacuums in space, which have been used to grow semiconductor crystals:

https://scfh.ru/en/papers/vacuum-in-the-wake/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Shield_Facility

I'm not saying it's practical, but it's pretty cool.

[boothby]

What I'm struggling with is the hard radiation, which causes defects and even impurities even if you start with isotopically pure feedstock

[jsbisviewtiful]

I had a similar thought regarding radiation - but also curious about cost to continuously launch materials and the overall reliability of recovery. Just seems like a lot of "what ifs" for the sake of finding funding.

[3eb7988a1663]

What is the current defect rate preventing from happening? If you can lower it three orders of magnitude, what then becomes possible?