LZM (Laboratory-Factory Module)

Mission Profile

LZM (Laboratoriya-Zavodskoy Modul, or Laboratory-Factory Module) was a Soviet concept for a large industrial manufacturing module designed for use on a lunar surface base or in Earth orbit, intended to conduct production of pharmaceuticals, semiconductor crystals, and other materials benefiting from the microgravity or vacuum environment. The concept envisioned essentially a factory in space that could produce high-value products impossible or difficult to manufacture on Earth, taking advantage of conditions available only in the space environment. LZM was a concept study from the late Soviet era that never progressed to hardware development, though it reflected the serious interest Soviet planners had in industrial applications of space during the 1970s-1980s.