Empa strengthens Swiss space industry

(CONNECT) In an interview with "Empa Quarterly", Lorenz Herrmann emphasizes that Empa's materials research has numerous points of contact with space research. As the member of Empa's Board of Directors explains in the current 89th issue of the quarterly magazine, partnerships such as Empa's still young membership of the Center for Space and Aviation Switzerland and Liechtenstein are elementary in the rapidly growing market for space technologies and applications. In order to become visible to the most important players, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), "a certain critical mass is essential, which we hope to achieve through this partnership," says Herrmann, who also heads Empa's Modern Materials and Surfaces department and the Empa research focus on nanoscale materials and technologies.

The primary goal is to gain access to the new market of the New Space Economy: "Swiss companies will also develop numerous new products and applications in this area in the future, and we at Empa naturally want to be part of this alliance," says Herrmann. He believes that Empa is ideally equipped for this thanks to its enormous expertise in materials and translation, i.e. the translation of scientific findings into practical applications. Since May, there has been a further link via the new European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Center Switzerland, which was opened by ESA in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute at Park Innovaare and of which Herrmann is a member of the Advisory Board. The aim here is also to strengthen research cooperation with ESA.

Thanks to its almost 25-year partnership with the University of Bern, Empa is involved in numerous ESA projects, "and that is going very well". Another article in "Empa Quarterly" about Empa's involvement in space documents that an ESA space mission with components for measuring instruments from Dübendorf has already been successfully completed. Three more Empa components are currently in space and two more are in preparation. As Herrmann goes on to explain, the proximity to Innovation Park Zurich "just around the corner here in Dübendorf" is also very advantageous. ce/mm