In the modern world, you are not going anywhere unless you integrate space.
Padma Bhushan Dr B.N. Suresh – Chancellor, IIST & Padma Shri Awardee
While space was rightly called the New Frontier for the past couple of years, it was a frontier into which only the public sector, specifically the ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organization), dared to venture. The private sector was represented thinly, maybe by one or two vendors. But suddenly, because of the government's change in policy since 2018 and 2019, space has become a sector to watch out for. It has become attractive for the private sector because an ecosystem has been developed.
It is widely acknowledged globally that space has tremendous potential as a fourth frontier for helping a nation defend itself. The stress now is on the private sector, especially startups; today, the Indian space industry works with nearly 700 small, medium, and big industries.
A Home-Grown Industry
In the modern world, you are not going anywhere unless you integrate space. Advanced countries and larger economies want to move towards a space-based system. It is projected that by 2050, a space-based weapon system, including nuclear weapons, may be deployed.
Technology development happens faster now because innovation is on an exponential curve. Cyber-attacks are of great concern in space operations, making quantum encryption technologies imperative.
The Indian space industry has made tremendous strides in meeting the requirements of the civilian and military domain to a great extent through an indigenous effort. However, for the last six decades or so, there has been a firewall between civilian and military programmes. While India is not in the space race with any other space nation, international suppliers of space equipment make no difference between the two programmes and do not hesitate to embargo both when it meets their interest. This makes an indigenous space effort that much more critical for national security.
The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)(an informal political understanding among states that seek to limit the proliferation of missiles and missile technology formed by the powerful G7 group in 1987) is a handy tool to block the sale of critical components even for peaceful space programmes. However, in the case of India, it has been a blessing in disguise because it forced ISRO to create a home-grown technology; today, our launch vehicles are over 95 per cent locally produced. India imports only a few crucial electronic components. To achieve self-sufficiency in these electronics, India will have to change its mindset and take bold decisions, which fortunately are being taken.
India can launch space vehicles in various orbits- polar, equatorial, low orbit or higher orbit. ISRO has mastered the technology of putting a satellite in any orbit today. In fact, India has its own cryogenic technology and is commercially exploiting its launch capability to launch payloads from all over the world at very competitive rates. India has had over 40 successful earth observation launches and 46 communications launches. India has launched payloads for all major nations, including the U.S., UK, Germany, Japan etc. After the war in Ukraine war, orders are coming for dedicated launches. ISRO has also mastered the technology of launching a swarm of satellites from one vehicle, the largest number being 102, the second nation after Russia to do so.
India is proud of its interplanetary mission, Chandrayan 3, which was the first mission to land on the lunar southern pole in the first shot.
From the point of view of the defence sector, earth observation satellites are relevant. Depending on whether you want eyes over land or oceans, high resolution or otherwise, an assortment of spacecraft is needed. India started with resolutions of one kilometre, and today, we have a resolution of 30 mm. These resolutions can even be further stepped up as required. In addition, India launches all kinds of weather and communications satellites. India is entirely self-sufficient in weather forecasting, and the data given to the Indian meteorological department is interpreted in real-time. India has the institutions, the capability and the qualified manpower to put it into practice.
The Space Ecosystem
A launch base is being created in Tamil Nadu near Tuticorin. It will be used not only by ISRO but also by all startups who wish to conduct trials of their products. When the space industry was thrown open for the private sector in 2019, more than 120 startups came up in India within a short time. In a span of 3 to 4 years, around 2130 startups were functioning. In fact, a Hyderabad-based company launched a suborbital flight successfully and repeatedly. This is not to be taken lightly, as the space launch business is not easy; problems crop up at the last minute; you must rectify them and take them forward.
However, there are some mismatches. Startups always do not get what they want or fail to make progress. All stakeholders need to sit down with policymakers and convince them to create a single window clearance. President Kalam used to always say that the Indian space industry is like Europe, with a host of different agencies- ISRO, DRDO, CSIR etc. all working in silos. All agencies must join forces and pool their science, academic institutions and human resources towards a common objective. Synergy has to replace turf battles. When different labs/agencies shake hands, cross-fertilisation of ideas will take place. Sadly, there has been little progress in this collaboration between the scientific community, academia, R&D, IT Industry and the like. The gap between R&D, industry and academia must be bridged. Today, capable people are present in all segments of the space industry, and academia and R&D have to be conveyed what is required by the industry to work out a solution. Many projects have reached successful conclusions thanks to such a collaboration.
India must establish its own institutes on the lines of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which are the real NASA programmers doing all the work for U.S. interplanetary missions. Caltech designs and fabricates the latest high-tech space platforms and payloads, which are regularly launched by NASA and even carried out in interplanetary missions.
In some ways, we see the same thing happening in India. Many small satellites that ISRO launches come from academic institutions. The academic institutions are able to comprehend the requirements, put them together, conduct rigorous ground tests and then launch in ISRO vehicles for free.
Academic institutions and startups must harness youthful brains to come up with new, innovative ideas and projects for space. Together, the space ecosystem should take such promising projects forward, including making available the capital to make them a reality.
ISRO's headquarters in Bangalore could act as a technology hub to facilitate academia and startups. Bangalore is an aerospace centre in terms of education, industry, and manufacturing, with all space industry majors located there.
Integrating Space and Defence
The Defence Space Agency represents the interests of all three services and would also help give a thrust to defence-related space technology and create a link between space institutions and the defence industry.
Space situational awareness is a big thing today, and there is a major centre in Bangalore to monitor space. Satellites play a major role in network-centric warfare.
Much work must be done to truly integrate space and defence, as much of it is only on paper today. What is important is to give a thrust on critical areas of policy capability and user requirements. How do we do that? You need to define a mechanism that the government of India authorises, and also the three service chiefs and the heads of thethree major agencies are part of. There has to be a forum that meets regularly to debate, discuss and take ideas forward. What is lacking is policy limitation.
Today, India exports arms, ammunition, and missiles. We need to take the vision forward and script a national space strategy. While different requirements from the military and the civil domain may exist for such a strategy, a consensus can be reached. Agriculture, rural development, and metrological departments have different demands. Most of their requirements are already being worked on with space agencies, and there is an existing partnership with these departments. The key actions required are to enthuse our industries.
The space economy is rapidly growing—from 447 billion in 2023 to over 500 billion in 2023. Today, India has a minuscule piece of this huge pie, but it can grab 20 per cent of it by 2047 if we promote the industry and help it grow.
Synergia Takeaways
As India works on its space explorations and capabilities, the large presence of a dominant neighbour, China, remains. Can India keep pace with China's growing prowess? China has made rapid advances by doubling its space assets for intelligence gathering and surveillance over the last four years. This has allowed it to monitor, track, and target the forces of other countries worldwide.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has reportedly not been sitting idle and has succeeded in indigenously developing critical technologies over almost seven
decades of its existence—this ability to remain independent sets Indian research apart
.
The commercial success of the ISRO satellite launch vehicle and the lunar and Mars missions have established India as a potential space power. Authoritative sources claim that in some segments, the research conducted by ISRO is more advanced than the Chinese.
India has also expanded its reach by signing a new Space Situational Awareness (
SSA
) arrangement with the U.S. at the 2+2 ministerial dialogue in April
last
year. This further reinforces the pivotal role international cooperation plays in the long-term sustainability and safety of the outer space environment.
