IIT Hyderabad Professor has a Lithium-CO2 Battery That Can Power The Mars Mission

An IIT Hyderabad associate professor of the department of chemical engineering and creative & advanced research, Chandra Sekhar Sharma, has developed a Lithium-CO2 battery, which many believe could power India’s space projects and the grand Mars Mission in 2024.

Researcher, Chandra Shekhar has already retrieved Rs 25 lakh Swarnajayanti fellowship 2019-2020 from the department of science and technology in addition to a Rs 1.93 crore research grant from the Science and Engineering Research Board for the next five years.

In a conversation with TOI, Dr. Chandra stated, “We will use sodium and potassium metals and make the battery more energy efficient. Once ready, the battery will reduce the weight of satellites, thereby reducing the cost of planetary missions. Using CO2 as an energy carrier, the battery is touted to help boost space missions.” 

“Over the next five years, we will explore more about this concept and carry out scientific experiments. A real battery prototype will be developed as an outcome by engaging with organizations such as ISRO and DRDO in early phases for the Indian space mission,” Sharma added. 

Developing a prototype of a metal CO2 battery to explore the feasibility of this technology in the Mars mission, was the main objective behind this research. 

Consequently, Dr. Chandra explained, “The outcome of this project will not only utilize CO2 atmosphere on Mars to develop more energy storage systems for planetary missions but facilitate in mitigating the global challenge of climate change.”

Moreover, this research has been published as a featured letter and submitted for a patent in an international journal called ‘Materials Letters’.

Besides this, IIT- H has set up Indias’s first Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation and Data Acquisition Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Remotely Operated Vehicles at IIT Hyderabad, known as ‘TiHAN Foundation’. On December 29, 2020, The Foundation Stone has been virtually laid by the Minister of Education, Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’.  

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India has sanctioned Rs. 135 crores to IIT Hyderabad under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) to set up TiHAN Foundation.