The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) on Monday announced its collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to establish a Centre of Excellence for research in ‘Fluid and Thermal Sciences’. For this project, ISRO would be providing a seed funding of Rs 1.84 crore towards.

This Centre, as per IIT-M, will be the nodal centre for spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities of ISRO. Thermal problems regarding design, analysis and testing components could be performed by leveraging the expertise of IIT Madras faculty.

An MoU was signed at IIT Madras on November 11 by Prof Manu Santhanam, dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras and Victor Joseph T, director, Directorate of Technology Development & Innovation (DTDI), ISRO.

The key outcomes from this collaboration would include:

— Thermal Management Research Hub: The Centre will serve as a key research hub for ISRO, focusing on spacecraft and launch vehicle thermal management challenges.

— Funding: ISRO will provide an initial seed funding Rs. 1.84 crore to establish the Centre and for essential infrastructure and equipment, and additional funding for consumables, maintenance and for future projects in fluid-thermal sciences.

— Advanced Research Projects: Projects will cover critical areas, including spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryo-tank thermodynamics.

— Industry-Academia Collaboration: The Centre will enhance collaboration between ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty, fostering innovation in fluid and thermal sciences.

Having recognised the need to generate basic knowledge through advanced academic research to enable a truly self-reliant and self-generating space programme for the country, ISRO and IIT Madras had set up the ‘ISRO-IIT M Space Technology Cell’ in 1985.