Glasgow, which already produces more satellites than any other city in Europe, is building a reconfigurable factory line to manufacture next-generation space and photonics hardware faster and more flexibly. The space sector urgently needs manufacturing that can adapt quickly to different satellite designs and optical components, rather than being locked into a single product. Current production lines are rigid and expensive to retool. The Stratellite project, led by the University of Strathclyde with Thales UK, will create a digital and physical "Reconfigurable Pilot Line" (RPL) that can be rapidly reprogrammed for different products. A parallel support programme, SPACE-BATS, will fund researchers to help Scottish suppliers adopt these advanced techniques. If successful, the pilot line will demonstrate that flexible, precision manufacturing can cut costs and lead times for satellites and photonics. That could strengthen the UK’s position in the global space market and make satellite-based services—communications, navigation, Earth observation—cheaper and more reliable. The project also creates a template for other high-tech sectors needing adaptable manufacturing.
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_Scottish entrepreneurs were amongst the first to establish New Space companies to capitalise on the growth of this emerging market. In less than 15 years, Scotland has established itself as having one of the fastest growing space sectors in the world: with more satellites are produced in Glasgow than any other city in Europe. The University of Strathclyde, in collaboration with Thales UK Ltd proposes an ambitious plan to develop a Reconfigurable Manufacture and Test facility, supported by a digital architecture and disseminated to the supply-chain using a successful Business and Technical support structure, SPACE-BATS_ _The "Stratellite" project facility will demonstrate through a Pilot, Thales based application, the benefits of a Primary Manufacture, Assembly and Test Reconfigurable Pilot Line (RPL) built on a digital backbone for next generation space and photonics products. The project directly addresses the needs of the space sector for flexible, precision manufacturing._ _Alongside the digital and physical RPL, the collaboration will deliver "SPACE-BATS"; a Space based Business and Technical Support package for suppliers to engage with leading researchers in space R&D and Manufacturing._ _SPACE-BATS funds researchers time to engage and develop capability projects, ensuring Glasgow and Scotland's suppliers are leading the way in advanced, cost-effective manufacturing._ _The project delivers a digital and physical facility with funded support for the supply chain to innovate in an industrial sandbox. Successful delivery will be measurable across a pilot demonstrator line in collaboration with Thales. NMIS will work closely, using the following Work Package (WP) structure, with Thales to build a foundation RPL._ * _WP1:CoMET - Combined Manufacturing and Engineering Testing_ * _WP2:CoLab Advanced digital manufacturing tools for Space and Photonics products._ * _WP3:SPACE-BATS - Space based Business And Technology Support for the supply chain_ * _WP4:Advanced manufacturing pilot line: Thales_ * _WP5:World class digital factory of the future for optical systems at Thales, Govan_ _As a leading research University, UoS is uniquely positioned to grow the space sector in Scotland. Specialising in developing emerging, low TRL (TRL 1-3) technologies into industrially relevant processes and products (TRL 3-6). With almost 90% of research produced by the University of Strathclyde rated 'world-leading' or 'internationally-excellent' in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021\. In particular, impact beyond academia, 57% of impact was rated 'outstanding', with 93.2% rated as 'outstanding' or 'very considerable', compared to sector average of 87.2%. It is clear the University of Strathclyde, together with NMIS is a leading research institution in delivering manufacturing impact._
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