“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” The phrase, often attributed to the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, dates back to 1855 and conveys the idea that big rewards can come from innovation, especially when that innovation results in a better product.
The desire for better products – and the fortunes that can come with them – is the driving force behind the emerging in-space manufacturing industry.
The people in this pioneering enterprise believe that there are specific products that can be made in space and that, due to the unique conditions outside our atmosphere, those products can be made better than the equivalents made here on Earth.
They’re also convinced that the rewards for this innovation could be big. Very big.
And they might be right, because the products that could be most improved by being made in space are the sort of things that are as vital to everyday life today as mousetraps were in the 19th century: computer chips and medicines.
