IIT Madras and the Indian Space Research Organisation have joined hands to set up a Centre of Excellence in research on ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences.’ It shall receive ₹1.84 crore as seed funding initially from the ISRO.
This new center would be an important hub in the country’s thermal management research for spacecraft and launch vehicles related to thermal issues in component design, analysis, and testing. It will be guided by research activities led by the IIT Madras faculty.
The collaboration aims to create a Centre of pivotal facilities for ISRO’s thermal management challenges related to space and launch vehicles. This will use seed funding to set up the Centre, infrastructure, and equipment; future grants on consumables and maintenance at the Centre; and projects undertaken in fluid-thermal sciences. The center would also work on some critical areas, such as spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryogenic tank thermodynamics.
This partnership further encourages collaboration among ISRO scientists and the faculty of IIT Madras in conducting innovative work in fluid and thermal sciences. Realizing that progress in fundamental research complements a self-sustaining space program, ISRO and IIT-M initiated the ‘ISRO-IIT M Space Technology Cell’ as early as 1985 to extend their collaborations.
This new Centre represents a quantum leap in augmenting India’s national capabilities in space technology and engineering. It reinforces the country’s commitment to advance research that supports its growing ambitions in space exploration and satellite technology.
