Space Factories Could Be Beneficial For Human Life, Scientists Believe

When the Sputnik spacecraft was launched in October 1957, it was science fiction come true -- the first step of human kind in the exploration of the universe from outside our own blue planet.

Factories in space: how extra-terrestrial industry could keep humans alivehttps://t.co/yYulQU61Hy pic.twitter.com/GgInkOp5SM

— Space Frontier (@SpaceFrontier) August 19, 2016

Since then, a number of men and women have traveled into space to explore it and do research. However, while it seems like a playground for scientists, some believe that the earth could find more economic gains by going to space. They believe this could be done by taking innovative industrial activity outside the earth's atmosphere by building factories in space, thus taking advantage of the minimal amount of gravity.

Phys.org pointed out that governments fund very expensive space missions, looking for ways to secure an economic return. NASA encouraged the industry, and NASA claimed thy could make space pay to get involved, with promises and claims that the industry could experience microgravity environment in orbit.

There are studies that claimed the lack of gravity might allow for the growth of protein crystals that are important in the fight against cancer, while new materials could be manufactured to exhibit new and useful properties.

However, the entire cycle cost -- from launching these materials and the necessary equipment, as well as the processing of the ingredients and returning the end products to Earth showed that these ideas may be unsustainable.

There are other exploration missions that the NASA and other space agencies are looking into, including asteroid mining, which many also believe could be economically beneficial. However, there is still a need for current factories to process them, making the need for transportation resources more massive than the end products.

It seems that these space factories may still be far off -- but once established, it is believed that they could help keep humankind alive durin g missions that keep them far away from the earth.