Exodus Space Systems is a West Australian Early Stage Innovation Company, currently working to develop our Carousel Spacelab concept as an enabler for In-Space Production Applications (InSPA), where high value physical products are made in space for use on Earth.

Twenty years of research at the International Space Station has unlocked new science that will impact multiple industries, from tissue engineering to drug discovery, in metallurgy, fluidics and the production of optical fibres. Each of the new space stations in development – the Commercial low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLDs) – will aim to enable these InSPA productions as part of their business models.

However, the microgravity that makes these advances possible also presents significant practical handling problems, preventing widespread application of these cutting edge technologies.

Carousel Spacelab is a small, free-flying centrifuge that our customers will use to apply periodic spin-gravity (i.e. centrifugal force) for those situations where gravity is useful. Just as with other processes that require fine control of temperature or pressure, Carousel Spacelab will give customers a “master control knob” for gravity.

Hosting a number of customer payloads (in the cubesat form factor), the spacecraft is designed to fold up to fit into the payload bay of a small launch provider or rideshare vehicle, then deploy once in low Earth orbit. The mission profile will also help to accelerate practical and cost-effective in-space manufacturing methods by freeing customers from the constraints of working onboard the ISS. With an optional grapple fixture, the spacecraft can be captured by a space station robotic arm when it’s time for payloads to be retrieved for return to customers.

We are currently reaching out to potential customers of the system to find out how we can better design it to better suit the needs of the emerging ISARM industry. Please consider taking our Space Payload User Survey. You can also contact us for more information, or click through to our news page.

---

Would you like to own an early artistic version of the Deployable Toroid Array (DeTA) on which Carousel Spacelab is based? Visit out Shapeways shop here.

---

We gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship of The Inventors Association of WA.

---

We were proud to be named one of the Core Exchange Resources conference’s “Hot 30” companies to watch.