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Voyager Technologies to choose developer for OSU space park tied to Starlab

By submitting your information you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement . Join the Columbus Business First to unlock even more insights! Ohio State University already has three spinoff companies related to its partnership with the NASA-backed coalition building the future private Starlab space station. Story Highlights Voyager Technologies plans Starlab space station launch in 2029. OSU is to host terrestrial research for the Starlab project. Voyager will soon announce a developer for the OSU lab. The private replacement for the International Space Station is several years away from launching into orbit, but related startups from Ohio State University already are taking off. Voyager Technologies, operator and majority owner of the future Starlab station, is close to announcing a real estate developer for George Washington Carver Science Park on farmland leased from OSU Airport. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events Discoveries from paired space and terrestrial research could transform industries including semiconductors, agriculture, cancer research and medical devices, Neeraj Gupta, chief innovation officer of Voyager Technologies, said Wednesday at an OSU conference on Starlab progress. "Stop thinking about space as being hard. It's another platform," Gupta said. Experimental payloads aboard Starlab will have "clear paths to commercial products," he said. Voyager's job is to make that easier for corporate clients, such as artificial intelligence for more efficient planning and data gathering. "There has to be a bottom-line reason to do research in space," he said. Voyager is choosing among "four compelling proposals" for facility and campus development concepts on property leased from OSU, said John Horack, professor and aerospace policy chairman in a joint appointment at OSU's engineering and public affairs colleges. An announcement is expected within a few months and construction could start about a year after that. Trustees approved a lease for 10 acres in 2023, but the total site south of Dublin Granville Road could reach 80 acres, according to notes for a student design competition last year. Starlab research is underway in a 7,000-square-foot garage owned by Ohio State's agricultural college. The work has already led to three spinoffs and Carver Park will generate more startups and attract companies to Central Ohio, Horack said Wednesday. "We're making new companies. They will create products of value," he said. "Maybe we will create entire new industries here." Ohio State plans experiments soon to test a type of welding in microgravity, he said. Tests will be conducted aboard parabolic flights, a technique that creates about 22 seconds of weightlessness, according to NASA. Welding is not currently possible in space, Horack said, so finding a working technique would allow building much bigger structures at much less expense than before. Starlab Space LLC aims to launch its space station in 2029, the Houston Business Journal reported last month. The International Space Station is expected to be retired by the end of the decade. Denver-based Voyager and its Houston-based operating subsidiary Nanoracks created Starlab as a joint venture. Commercial partners include Airbus, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MDA Space, Hilton and Palantir Technologies. The coalition picked Ohio State for the terrestrial component in 2022. Voyager and the university signed a memorandum of understanding this February, setting the framework for research and potential commercialization, according to a press release. Starlab also has an innovation park in Switzerland and is considering sites in Japan, according to a release. Experiments aboard the space station will run duplicates at the OSU lab as a control group. The park also will be the site for training crews, preparing experiments and processing samples when they return. Researchers also can conduct practice runs to perfect experimental designs. "You can't get to space and wing it," Horack said. One of the spinoffs, Spaero Systems, was founded by Ohio State undergraduate brothers, engineering senior Ian Harris and business freshman Nikolas Harris. They are developing a plasma wand for sterilizing surfaces, protecting astronauts from infections in the closed environment. The Starlab partnership will help OSU keep aeronautics graduates from leaving Central Ohio for space-related work, Horack said. The park has attracted other corporate partners. Blue Abyss and Nexture Bio are among companies agreeing to perform outreach and education at OSU for elementary students and up, according to a release. Blue Abyss researches technologies to enable humans to travel and live in extreme space and marine environments. Nexture develops enabling technologies for cultivated meat.