The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has announced its collaboration with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to set up a centre of excellence (CoE) for research in ‘fluid and thermal sciences’. For this project, ISRO will provide a seed funding of Rs 1.84 crore towards establishing the centre and for essential infrastructure and equipment, and additional funding for maintenance and future projects in fluid-thermal sciences.

This Centre will be the nodal centre for spacecraft and launch vehicle-related thermal management research activities of ISRO. 

Thermal design, analysis and testing components could be performed by leveraging the expertise of IIT Madras faculty. Projects will cover critical areas, including spacecraft thermal management, combustion instability in hybrid rockets, and cryo-tank thermodynamics. 

The Centre will enhance collaboration between ISRO scientists and IIT Madras faculty, fostering innovation in fluid and thermal sciences. For 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.