UK company shoots a 1000-degree furnace into space to study off-world chip manufacturing — semiconductors made in space could be ‘up to 4,000 times purer’ than Earthly equivalents

A team from Cardiff, Wales, is experimenting with the feasibility of building semiconductors in space, and its most recent success is another step forward towards its goal. According to the BBC, Space Forge’s microwave-sized furnace has been switched on in space and has reached 1,000°C (1,832°F) — one of the most important parts of the manufacturing process that the company needs to validate in space.

“This is so important because it’s one of the core ingredients that we need for our in-space…