IIT-M, US Consulate to boost scientific, biz ties in space sector

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), the US Consulate General Chennai and the Indian Space Association (ISpA), have called upon governments and the business community in Indo-Pacific countries to boost scientific and business collaboration in the space technology sector.

They highlighted three core areas where further collaboration would lead to the greatest benefit -- "Make in Space for Use in Space, Make on Earth for Use in Space and Make in Space for Use Back on Earth".

The Whitepaper titled ‘Space Technology: The Next Business Frontier - Opportunities and Challenges for the Indo-Pacific Region’, which was released by IIT-Madras will be shared widely with key stakeholders in India, the United States, Indo-Pacific and other countries who are leaders or emerging or are planning to develop the space industry sector in their countries, a release from IIT-Madras on Friday said.

The Whitepaper is an outcome of a three-day international conclave hosted by IIT Madras in collaboration with ISpA and supported by the US Consulate General Chennai, recently.

The key recommendations in the Whitepaper include developing building materials like concrete or its analogues using regolith available on planets, curing with deficient amounts of water or its analogues., developing a robotic drilling system that can be remotely commanded from earth or orbiters and work in an intelligent self-correcting way to deal with unknown subsurface soil encountered without breaking drills or changing drills

Other recommendations include further advances in 3D printing of metals like titanium and aluminium alloys, composites (CFRP) and refractory materials like tungsten, molybdenum, and tantalum for high-performance applications in space engineering, further advances in intelligent manufacturing, including collaborative robots, artificial intelligence and machine learning and Integrated electronic system designs aim to be “universal, series, modular” and allow a high level of integration, scalable processing performance, and a high degree of customisation.

In addition, identification of suitable materials like silicon-based fibres, semi-conductor, and carbon nanomaterials and test them on earth under low gravity conditions, developing scalable 3D bioprinters for organ printing and manufacturing systems to make protein crystals, and pharmaceutical drugs.