Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing could become part of a global dream team that significantly advances space exploration technology.

Following a visit by NASA executives, IfM believes it could form an elite quartet with the space agency alongside US aerospace giant Boeing and contemporaries at the University of Alabama to develop a new generation space shuttle.

IfM’s Distributed Automation and Information Laboratory (DIAL) already collaborates with Boeing’s ‘Phantom Works’ division. This programme aims to develop a distributed information infrastructure to support the notion of so called intelligent or self-serving assets and to develop their role within Boeing’s extended service supply chain.

The Phantom Works division is the main research & development arm of The Boeing Company. Founded by McDonnell Douglas before the merger with Boeing, its primary focus had been development of advanced military products and technologies; now the R & D extends to commercial and space applications.

The NASA visit to Cambridge may coincide with the 40th anniversary of the US moon landings but its significance is likely to last for many years to come.

John Vickers, manager from NASA’s National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM), was in Britain on a fact-finding mission; NCAM carries out R & D into the agency’s aerospace manufacturing requirements for space flight. Specifically, it is now working on the replacement for the soon to be retired Space Shuttle, which will make its last flight later this year.

NASA’s Ares I launch vehicle will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle for missions to the International Space Station and the Moon.

Among the major contractors for this vehicle is Boeing, a current research funder of IfM’s DIAL.

Andy Shaw, DIAL business manager said: “We think there are some significant synergies between this project and our aerospace ID programme. We already work with Boeing and certainly have expertise that both universities could exploit on this project. It would be great to collaborate.”

The NASA executive was joined on the visit by Dr Bill Killingsworth and colleagues from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr Killingsworth carries out supply chain research on behalf of NASA.

The group wanted to learn more about DIAL’s research work on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its role in tracking aviation parts and other supply chain applications.

The visit also included a stop at the centre for industrial photonics to see some of the work on advanced manufacturing processes.

While in the UK, the group have also visited Rolls Royce, the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing in Sheffield and Cambridge-based TWI.