Ahmedabad: A new laboratory for space systems design was inaugurated at the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) in Bopal on Wednesday. The lab is equipped with software that can design, analyze, and perform mission simulations for space systems.

The lab is aimed at enabling space startups to implement innovative ideas on-board. The IN-SPACe is a key facilitator and promoter of the space activities of non-government entities (NGE) in the country.

The lab was inaugurated by the ISRO chairman and secretary, Department of Space (DoS), S Somanath, and is equipped with 16 workstations and high-performance computing multi-core servers. The software resources available at the lab include system tool kit, advance design systems, pathwave system design, high frequency structure simulation, 3D CAD Mach 3, Simcenter 3D space system (thermal and cooling), finite element analysis structure (FEAST), and OpticStudio (Zemax) among others. These resources will be useful for mission planning.

The chairman of IN-SPACe, Dr Pawan Goenka, said that the design lab has high-end analysis and simulation software for mission simulation, which will help build prototypes with fewer iterations, thus significantly reducing the turnaround time and R&D costs for start-ups. DeshGujarat