{"id":222949,"date":"2023-01-18T19:05:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T13:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=222949"},"modified":"2023-02-20T19:06:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T13:36:52","slug":"role-of-private-sector-in-space-indias-rocket-dreams-ready-for-a-lift-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/role-of-private-sector-in-space-indias-rocket-dreams-ready-for-a-lift-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Role of private sector in space: India’s rocket dreams ready for a lift-off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cINDIA’S ROCKET DREAMS READY FOR A LIFT-OFF\u201d <\/strong>published in the Livemint <\/b>on\u00a018th January 2023<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 3 \u2013 Achievements of Indians in science & technology.<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the role of the private sector in space.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Barring ISRO, no other organization was building satellites (or rockets) in India in 2008. The role of private players has increased manifold since then.<\/p>\n

Though India has a long way to go to catch up with the likes of the US, Russia and China, it is an endeavour well begun.<\/p>\n

How has the role of the private sector in space increased since then?<\/h5>\n

-Chennai\u2019s SRM University has built the SRMSat<\/strong>. It was designed to address pollution by monitoring carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Dhruva Space<\/strong>: The company launched Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2. Now many foreign entities are in talks with Dhruva Space to build and launch their satellites. It is a part of India\u2019s space odyssey 2.0.<\/p>\n

Agnikul Cosmos<\/strong>: It works to capture a small satellite launch market. It is developing rockets fuelled by its patented semi-cryogenic engines and 3-D prints the rockets.<\/p>\n

Digantara<\/strong>: The company wants to address the problem of space debris and has developed an in-orbit device that will track it. It also plans to launch a constellation of 40 satellites to gather data on space junk in low-earth orbit (LEO).<\/p>\n

Pixxel<\/strong>: The company wants to build a constellation of 24 hyper spectral micro satellites (launched three demo satellites in 2022), which will act as an \u201cMRI scanner\u201d of Earth.<\/p>\n

They will monitor deforestation, track air and water pollution, check forest biodiversity, as well as coastal and marine health apart from changes in the urban landscape.<\/p>\n

Skyroot Aerospace<\/strong>: Recently, it launched Vikram-S<\/a><\/strong>, India\u2019s first private rocket, from Isro\u2019s launch facility at Sriharikota.<\/p>\n

Airtel-backed OneWeb<\/strong> is in the process of launching 648 small satellites in LEO mode to provide its high-speed satellite internet service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Year-End Review -2022: Department of Space<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What led to an increased role of the private sector in space?<\/h2>\n

Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe)<\/strong><\/a>: It is the regulatory entity facilitating the private sector\u2019s participation in the space industry.<\/p>\n

Ever since its operationalization, over 100 companies have come up in this sector and in 2022 they raised as much as $110 million, which is more than what private space players had raised cumulatively till 2021.<\/p>\n

The success of SpaceX<\/strong>: With its Starlink satellites, SpaceX demonstrated the profit for private players.<\/p>\n

Advantages of smaller satellites<\/strong>: Smaller satellites use industry-grade rather than space-grade components. Further, these smaller satellites are parked closer to earth, where radiation is lower and has a shorter lifespan. Moreover, while an INSAT class satellite will cost at least \u20b9400 crores, smaller satellites can be built for just \u20b910 crores.<\/p>\n

Above all, they do not need large launch vehicles such as the PSLV or GSLV, which cost \u20b9300 crore and \u20b9450 crores, respectively.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: According to European Space Agency data, anywhere between 70,000 to 100,000 satellites will be launched in the next 15 years and over 80% will be small satellites weighing less than 500 kg.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What are the limiting factors in increasing the role of the private sector in space?<\/h2>\n

Funding<\/strong>: India\u2019s space budget of $1.7 billion (in 2022) was minuscule compared to the US\u2019s $30 billion and China\u2019s $14 billion (which includes $1 billion from its private players).<\/p>\n

Space assets<\/strong>: While the US had 1,650 space assets and China had 450, India\u2019s, at last count, had less than 100.<\/p>\n

Long neglect of the commercial space market<\/strong>: India\u2019s share in the $440 billion global space market is just 2%. The government wants to increase this share to 10% through the private sector, which will be able to attract large-scale private capital.<\/p>\n

What will be the role of ISRO if the role of the private sector in space is the future?<\/h2>\n

a)<\/strong> The private sector will rely on ISRO for infrastructure\u2014be it launch facilities, tracking systems, technology transfers and capacity building, b)<\/strong> ISRO will focus on scientific missions such as focussing on deep-space missions, and putting an Indian in space through its Gaganyaan mission. There by\u00a0passing on the commercial business to the private sector.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: ISRO has set up NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) to handle the commercial end of the business.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At present, India needs a space policy<\/strong>, which can be clear and liberal on private players.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u00a0\u201cINDIA’S ROCKET DREAMS READY FOR A LIFT-OFF\u201d published in the Livemint on\u00a018th January 2023. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Achievements of Indians in science & technology. Relevance: About the role of the private sector in space. News: Barring ISRO, no other organization was building satellites (or rockets) in India… Continue reading Role of private sector in space: India’s rocket dreams ready for a lift-off<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10501],"class_list":["post-222949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-live-mint","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}