Mount Ida Campus Innovation and Collaboration Space (ICS) Partner Selected for Spaceflight Mission

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Xheme Inc., a leading materials science company located in the Mount Ida Campus Innovation & Collaboration Space (ICS), announced last month that the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc., manager of the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory, has awarded a spaceflight opportunity for its proposal “Programmable Future of Plastics and Coatings: Building Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Innovation Loop.” This award was in response to the ISS National Lab Sustainability Challenge: Beyond Plastics, a collaboration with global prestige beauty brand Estée Lauder.

Xheme is breaking new ground in the development of high-performance, sustainable, multifunctional polymer composite films with applications ranging from chemical industries to combating oxidative stress in biological systems, and the grant underscores Xheme’s innovative materials science leadership and sustainability commitment. The grant recognizes the critical need for sustainable materials that can perform in both terrestrial and space environments and will fund Xheme’s exploration of next-generation polymeric composite materials that can withstand the high-energy space environment while maintaining their performance and chemical recyclability.

This initiative also represents an exciting collaboration between Xheme and industrial partners such as FLEXcon, Cambridge Polymer Group, and Aegis Aerospace, alongside academic support from UMass Lowell’s Plastics Engineering Department. 

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