IIT Madras and ISRO to establish a Centre to study spacecraft & launch vehicle thermal management
New Delhi, 19 November 2024: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Madras is collaborating with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to establish a Centre of Excellence for research in ‘fluid and thermal sciences’.
This Centre will act as a nodal centre for ISRO’s spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities. ISRO would provide a seed funding of Rs 1.84 Crore for establishing it.The faculty at IIT Madras would help find solutions to thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing of various components.
An MoU towards this collaboration was signed by Prof. Manu Santhanam, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras and Mr. Victor Joseph T, Director, Directorate of Technology Development & Innovation (DTDI), ISRO, in the presence of Project coordinator Prof. Arvind Pattamatta, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, and other stakeholders from IIT Madras and ISRO.
Prof. Pattamatta said the Centre will foster a unique industry-academia interface, allowing ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty and students to collaboratively advance research in critical areas of thermal science. “By addressing complex thermal engineering challenges, we aim to contribute significantly to the nation’s space program and strengthen India’s self-reliance in space technologies.”
This is not the first time IIT-Madras and ISRO are collaboration. The two had set up a ‘ISRO-IIT M Space Technology Cell’ in 1985 itself, with a view to generate basic knowledge through advanced academic research to enable a truly self-reliant and self-generating space programme for the country.
