Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are jointly building a US$ 1 billion satellite with latest large reflectors, high antenna and others, for clear data transmission. “It is a unique mission where both agencies will be involved in mission design, instruments, payloads and the launch vehicle with the US agency pitching in most funds”, said former ISRO chairman A. S. Kiran Kumar on Wednesday.
The eagerly awaited ‘Human Space Mission Programme’ got delayed due to the pandemic and this project will give a big filip to the country’s development as a large number of science & technology platforms are working on it, he said, during a virtual presentation on ‘Space Technology Development and Use: An Indian Approach” organised by the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI).
Indian space programme has always sought collaborative efforts and is running about 50 satellites tracking weather, communication, strategic issues, etc., and this number has to be doubled with the help of the private sector for enhancing capacities. “Space laws and policies have to be modified as globally it is the private entities leading the innovation,” he said.
The Government has initiated ‘New Space India Ltd’ to own the launch vehicles and space assets of ISRO and Tata Sky has signed up to make make use of capacities in the upcoming satellite ‘GSAT-24’ to be launched by Arianespace. ‘IN-Space’ is another entity to regulate space activities and facilitate offering public facilities and expertise to start ups and 40 proposals were received, said Dr. Kumar, also the Vikaram Sarabhai professor at ISRO.
Tracing the growth of space progamme under the ‘visionary leadership’ of Dr. Sarabhai, he said the objective has always been make “innovative use of accessible technology for addressing societal problems and build what is not available”. ISRO has been able to have a trailblazing run because of “freedom to take decisions and a robust review system”.
It began with ‘sounding rockets’ borrowed from developed nations to be launched from Thumba (Kerala) from a dilapidated church building to ‘SITE’ experiment where common man could be reached in remote places through satellite television and so on which helped trigger the “telecom,broadcasting and meteorology services revolution”.
”DTH - Director to Home TV is a follow up of SITE and with help of indigenous INSAT series, we are able to forecast a cyclone four days in advance saving lives, helping fishermen reach their fishing spots directly even while guiding them about weather in their mother tongue. ‘GAGAN’ – Geoaugmented navigation is for planning and precision landing of planes and used by railways for real time monitoring,” he explained.
Satellite data is helping in mapping of landmass, agriculture planning, water resources identification, disaster management and recently in tracking the COVID virus spread. ‘Chandrayan’ series was another landmark project as presence of water in moon was first identified. Future projects are in dealing with space debris threat and mining of the asteroids for precious metals as 12,000 each year pass close to earth, apart from space travel. ASCI faculty Valli Manickam and DG Nirmalya Bagchi, also spoke.
