PhD student – Richard Arundal
Sponsor – self/Arundal Astronautics Ltd
Supervisor - Dr Jasper Graham Jones
I had a vision to set up my own spacecraft engineering company in the South West of England, so founded Arundal Astronautics Ltd in 2015. I wanted to research ‘On Orbit Manufacturing’, or as I call it ‘spacecraft building spacecraft in space’. Completing a PhD alongside the technical start-up business would give me and the business credibility, and my research clarity and focus.
‘Building a factory in space’ is enormously complex. Linking to the advanced manufacturing capability at the University of Plymouth has really helped me get a clear direction for my research and narrowed down the scope of my PhD into a feasible project plan.