Opinion | Indian Astronaut on ISS Soon! ISRO Prepares for ‘Gaganyaan’ as Collaboration with NASA Rises

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to send an Indian astronaut to space. Effectively, this paves the way for the first Indian citizen after Rakesh Sharma to travel to space in close to 40 years! The Indian astronaut will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) in an American vehicle. This marks a significant development in the direction of India’s own goal of launching a manned mission to space and making an Indian astronaut land on the moon.

ISRO chief S Somanath has said that this program would be beneficial for India and went on to pitch for comprehensive training of Indian astronauts at US facilities, which would not only include the astronauts themselves but also the teams responsible for handling, medical support, and control operations. The decision of who to send on this mission, as well as the science objectives of the mission, rests entirely with ISRO.

The chief of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Bill Nelson is on a week-long visit to India as both New Delhi and Washington look to take their space collaboration to the next level. He has revealed that NASA will train an Indian astronaut for a mission to the ISS by the end of 2024. Such training would provide India with extremely valuable insights for its own Gaganyaan mission.

Today, ISRO has become a symbol of India’s technological prowess around the world. As such, NASA and a host of other space agencies and entire nations are keen on partnering with India to explore space together. Soon after touchdown in New Delhi on Tuesday, the NASA administrator called India a “leader in space”.

India has an ambitious space programme in place that includes several high-stake projects. Among them is the dream of making an Indian space station. In a sign of growing strategic cooperation between India and the United States, NASA chief Bill Nelson has said the American space agency would be willing to collaborate with ISRO to make the Indian space station come to life. Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the goal for ISRO to set up a space station by 2035 and send an Indian to the moon by 2040, NASA’s collaboration offer assumes significance.

Another important project to look out for is the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). With a total cost estimated at $1.5 billion, NISAR is likely to be the world’s most expensive Earth-imaging satellite. It will help both ISRO and NASA get valuable insights about the surface of the Earth and its climate. It will measure any change in its surface — land or water — or any movement in ice mass. As climate change becomes a major focus point for all countries, NISAR can help propel ISRO and NASA to the forefront of climate-related observations and analysis.

Meanwhile, the Indian Department of Space has said a joint working group of both ISRO and NASA are exploring collaborating on radiation impact studies, micrometeorite and orbital debris shield studies, space health and medicine aspects.

An implementing arrangement to further strengthen cooperation between the two space agencies has also been agreed upon and is now waiting for governmental approval from both New Delhi and Washington. Once this arrangement materialises, ISRO and NASA will together become a formidable force in space.

ISRO Going Global

In recent years, ISRO has emerged as a formidable space agency that the best in the business have come to envy. ISRO has pulled off complex missions — most recently Chandrayaan 3 — that have provided a major boost to the agency’s reputation globally. It also has plans to send an Indian to space with the Gaganyaan mission and has a planned Venus exploration project in the works too.

Most space agencies find it necessary to work with ISRO to understand how India achieves commendable successes, all within a budget that is not as extravagant as NASA’s, for example. A significant step in the direction of ISRO collaborating more closely with space agencies around the world was taken during Prime Minister Modi’s state visit to the United States in June. Accordingly, India became the 27th country to sign the Artemis Accords.

The Artemis Accords, based on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, are a set of non-binding principles that guide space exploration and use in the 21^st century. They aim to facilitate peaceful, sustainable, and transparent cooperation among nations and various space agencies for space exploration.

Bilateral space cooperation between India and at least 60 countries has also been agreed upon, as the Department of Space’s Annual Report for 2021-22 revealed that India signed space cooperation agreements with international space agencies from 60 countries and five multinational bodies. Apart from NASA, ISRO is also significantly collaborating with the space agencies of Russia, Japan, France, Israel and Australia.

Here’s a brief overview of India’s partnership with these countries

• ISRO and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are together working on the Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX). Having completed a feasibility study in 2018 itself, LUPEX could be launched sometime in 2025. In the meantime, India has successfully landed near the south pole of the moon and gathered extremely valuable insights from the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which will definitely come in handy for the LUPEX mission too.
• ISRO and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) are holding discussions regarding cooperation in space research. Also, earlier this year, four Indian astronaut candidates completed their general astronaut training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre. The Indian astronaut candidates were part of the country’s Human Spaceflight Programme, so it should not come as a surprise if they are selected for the Gaganyaan mission.
• France and India’s space partnership is now venturing into the Human Spaceflight and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) domains. This will allow the space agencies of both countries to track space debris and orbital objects. Separately, India and France are also discussing the establishment of an ISRO ground station in French Guiana.
• Meanwhile, India is holding discussions with Australia regarding the establishment of ISRO’s transportable ground station on Australia’s Cocos-Keeling Island (CKI) to support the Gaganyaan mission.
• ISRO is also involved in discussions with the Israel Space Agency to explore cooperation in deploying ISA’s Electric Propulsion System (EPS) in ISRO’s small satellites.

India has much to learn from the space agencies of other countries. Growing partnerships and collaborations with various space agencies will create a win-win situation that will ultimately benefit the Indian space programme and help ISRO achieve much more. ISRO will also grow the appetite for undertaking even more complex missions than it is currently involved in. By working with ISRO, various space agencies will also be able to better appreciate India’s space prowess.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.