Space will occupy a central place in future national pursuits, says former ISRO Programme Director

After a successful soft landing on the lunar south pole on August 23, India is gearing up for its solar mission on September 2, which will study the sun's behaviour and its impact on space weather. Moneycontrol caught up with Dr Mukund Rao, former Programme Director at ISRO, to understand key matters related to space missions.

Excerpts from the interview:

Why are space missions important for a nation?

To know more about the earth, an understanding of space is important.  While knowledge is one part of the quest, nations are largely interested because of resources that can be accessed and made use of.
Thus, if we can go to the moon or Mars and know more about the sun, then nations can benefit economically from it. Nations that have this capability have tremendous advantage, not just in terms of economics, but also because of how they can influence policies with regard to space.

It means that those that have the technology are better placed in "governing" space  than those without. So, it becomes like an elite-club, of those who have (space technology), vis a vis the have-nots. Our achievements in space from the 1970s till now have put India in this elite club. I feel that space will occupy a central place in human and national pursuits in future, and will be fundamental to equations between nations in the next 50-100 years.

How will these missions establish India?

The present Indian space missions can be put in three categories:

1.One, space missions that are designed to either observe/image the earth, or for communications/positioning tasks that are required for civilian, defence, and disaster governance.

2. Two, missions that are aimed for exploration and ultimately habitation in space (like the moon, Mars, Indian orbital platform, etc.); and three, those that are more for scientific knowledge and discovery of outer space.

3. Currently, almost all space missions are state-funded and owned. It is possible that earth observation and satellite communication missions could be privately developed and owned. Later, maybe businesses can also contribute to the 2nd and 3rd category of missions that I mentioned above.

Today, the global space economy is reported to be around $546 billion. India's space budget is just about $2 billion,  but the demand for space assets and services will only increase.

India must develop a long-term space strategy, say, for the next 25 or 50 years, and salami-slice its strategy into decadal plans of space missions, investments, research, and carve out what the government will do, and what the private sector will take up (as determined by the markets). Investments over the next 25 years would be considerable. Based on current trends, while the  Indian space economy could easily reach about $50 billion in the next 15-20 years,  with a larger access to global markets and privatisation, it has the potential to touch $100 billion.

How will ISRO go forward in the next decade?

After Chandrayaan, the focus is on the Gaganyaan programme, which will launch an Indian crew to a 400-km orbit for a three-day mission, and bring them back safely to earth, thus demonstrating our human spaceflight capabilities. The challenges for Gaganyaan are many: on crew escape, pad abort sequence, unmanned and manned flights, etc.

ISRO is also preparing to launch the Aditya-L1 solar mission on September 2, which will study the sun's behavior and its impact on space weather.

An XPoSat (X-ray polarimeter satellite) has been planned. It is India's first such mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. A possible mission to Venus is also under consideration. Then there are missions for EO imaging, which are used  by the military and also for law enforcement.  We also have the Nasa-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), which has applications in disaster management, agriculture, etc. Other earth imaging and communication satellites are also being planned, besides satellite missions for imaging that are being planned by the private sector.

Developing a private sector in spacetech is a top priority for  India, and a separate agency — In-Space — is creating the framework for this. There is a  lot of focus on space startups. Since India opened up its space sector in 2020, it is reported that more than 150 startups have emerged in areas such as rocket and satellite manufacturing, astronaut training, space tourism, and more.

How will these missions impact life on earth? And when?

India’s space programme started in the 1970s, under the guidance of Dr Vikram Sarabhai. The objective was `Space for National Development.’ Since then, the programme has taken considerable strides, from images for national mapping to more complex data/voice communications for education, health, business, defence, TV broadcasting, etc.

It has also helped in crop management, urban planning, weather forecasting, etc. In fact, space communications, imaging, and positioning have been embedded into the national infrastructure for communications, security, governance, planning and development, and more.

Most services that citizens receive today has some element of space at the back-end.  Thus, space is already impacting lives on earth and will continue to do so.

How has the government's support been in the last decade or so, since many projects have been undertaken during this period?

There has been un-questioned support to the Indian space programme right from the 1960s, when Dr Sarabhai first convinced the government to set the ball rolling with the launch of equatorial rockets for weather studies.

Successive governments provided fulsome support. In 2003, the Chandrayaan-1 mission, along with the Astrosat, soon followed by the Mars mission, heralded the start of our planetary exploration. The work on human space flight started in 2008.

Till now, the nation has spent about $25 billion on about 240 or so missions, satellites, and launchers.