The contract will see QinetiQ design and build a platform for microgravity-based heat transfer experiments to be installed on the International Space Station.
QinetiQ’s space business has secured a new contract worth €8.5m with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the development and production of microgravity-based heat transfer experiments, expected to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026.
“Called the Heat Transfer Host 1, or simply HOST1, the contract includes the development of the experimentation platform and four scientific experiments for studying heat transfer phenomena within different types of heat pipes while in microgravity: the heat pipes in question are used in thermal management of electronics, engines in automotive and aeronautic industries, and heat recovery systems like thermal solar panels.”
Jim Graham, Managing Director for QinetiQ’s space business commented,
“Following on from our successful win of the €9m HOST2 contract in November last year, we’re delighted to secure HOST1. This latest win demonstrates the value of our investment in the new cleanroom facility in Belgium, as well as further establishing our expertise in the space sector for delivering highly sophisticated scientific experiments in orbit. We look forward to working closely with ESA on this exciting project.”
Meh. So all the work (and the subsequent pay cheques) is being subbed to a facility in Belgium. Hardly worth celebrating since we’ve gutted our manufacturing capability (industry wide) in the Uk. If we focused and invested more on UK manufacturing enterprise and less on the ‘services’ industry we’d be able to support more long term jobs
Britain is still a top ten manufacturing nation, one car factory I think it’s Nissan in Sunderland produced more cars than Italy in 2015. It’s a shame we’ve gotten rid of Lots of our heavy industry but there are still plenty more high end products the UK makes, and that heavy industry destroyed rivers and land, loads of rivers in China are so polluted there are no fish and the population can’t even use the water and the land and people are suffering from high pollution. Our heavy industry decline has been great for the countryside and our waterways so… Read more »
The quote in the article only says “This latest win demonstrates the value of our investment in the new cleanroom facility in Belgium”. The cleanroom is only for manufacture, the design is done by designers sitting in front of keyboards in offices that are anything but clean (sandwich crumbs in the keyboard anyone?) and could be anywhere although admittedly the article didn’t say where; it could yet be designed in Belgium as well but I wouldn’t automatically assume that. The UK has a very strong satellite industry and plenty of cleanrooms in the UK, it just so happens that QinetiQ… Read more »
Yes, my thoughts exactly. What does ‘British’ business mean anymore?