Materials Break-Even: Fibre, Wafers and Films
What price must a material made in orbit fetch to cover a mission?
Chapter summary
divide the mission cost by the usable units it returns.
Key takeaways
- 1
With Setcoin's reference $8.1 million mission, ZBLAN fibre must sell for about $1,620 a metre if 10 km are drawn and half is usable, above the roughly $1,000 a metre reported for early orders; retina films break even at about $16,000 an implant for 500 implants a mission, plausible for a medical implant; semiconductor wafers break even only at about $40,500 each for 200 wafer-equivalents, far above market prices.
- 2
Materials made in orbit need very high value per unit or very many units per mission.
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