‘Key to space ambitions’: India succeeds in historic space docking mission | Space news

New Delhi, India – On Thursday morning, India successfully docked one satellite with another, joining a small group of elite space travelers to accomplish a complex technological feat in zero gravity.

Only the United States, Russia and China have carried out space docking missions, which allow individual satellites to work as a team, coordinate their tasks and share resources that cannot be carried on a single spacecraft.

The Indian mission, called the Space Deployment Experiment (SpaDeX), lifted off on December 30 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh with two satellites, Chaser and Target.

Like India’s previous titled space ventures – from the landing difficult part of the month to launch a Mars mission – SpaDeX was built on a very affordable budget and flew into space.

Space observers and astrophysicists told Al Jazeera that the docking experiment was “critical” to India’s space ambitions and future missions. So why is it a big deal?

Where does it place India against space superpowers? How does India keep its land costs low?

What did SpaDeX do?

The Chaser and Target weigh about 220 kg (485 lb) each. After being launched together on December 30, the two satellites separated in space.

They flew 470 km (292 miles) above Earth, where they were carefully placed in the same orbit – but about 20 km (12 miles) apart. There they tested a series of maneuvers to prepare for the dock.

The Chaser then slowly nudged its partner towards the Target before joining up on Thursday morning. The docking attempt was earlier scheduled for January 7, but was postponed after the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) noted that the slippage between the twin satellites was greater than expected.

Celebrations broke out at ISRO headquarters as Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated the space agency for its “successful demonstration of satellite launch”.

Modi described the docking as “an important stepping stone for India’s ambitious space missions in the coming years”.

Why is docking important?

Ahead of the mission, India’s science and technology minister Jitendra Singh said the mission was “vital to India’s future space ambitions.” Singh cited a number of projects undertaken by ISRO, which include sending a man to the moon by 2040, building India’s first space station and orbiting Venus.

Docking technology will play an important role in space station assembly and crew missions, providing critical facilities including in-orbit refueling and assembly of heavy infrastructure in microgravity.

Astrophysicist Somak Raychaudhury, vice-chancellor of Ashoka University outside New Delhi, said: “ISRO has demonstrated that it is good at launching and placing objects in orbit as well as landing.” “Now docking is an important part of the upcoming missions – and ISRO is now reaching a very, very important level.”

Indian mission in August 2023 Chandrayaan-3 became the first in the world to land near the south pole of the moon. Since then, ISRO’s ambitions have only grown. The next phase of the lunar mission – Chandrayaan-4 – will consist of a capsule that will collect samples from the moon and then connect with the return spacecraft to return to Earth.

“Missions like Chandrayaan-4 are so complex that they cannot be launched in one piece. It is very heavy and the pieces have to come together in space before landing on the moon to scoop up lunar rocks,” explained Raychaudhury.

Demonstrating docking capabilities has enabled ISRO to offer services to others, Raychaudhuri added.

Pallava Bagla, co-author of Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars and Beyond, agreed that ISRO should adopt this technology for future missions.

A unique addition to the SpaDeX mission is the integration of two dozen experiments by non-governmental organizations, including space technology startups and academic institutions.

“By making this platform available (to the private sector), we are lowering the barriers to entry and enabling a wider range of institutions to contribute to the space sector,” said Pawan Goenka, chairman of India’s space regulator, India’s National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre.

He agreed with the garden.

“It is no longer the Indian government’s space agency,” ISRO said. “This is now India’s space ecosystem, where ISRO is now a major player holding private startups and institutions in its hands.”

“Innovation, not economy”

While ISRO continues to search for the stars, funding in India’s private space sector is set to decline by 55 percent to $59.1 million in 2024 from $130.2 million in 2023, according to a report by market intelligence platform Tracxn. It is the first decrease in the last five years. . (Reuters informed (This decline comes amid a global 20 percent decline in space sector investment.)

Meanwhile, government funding for the Indian Space Agency has increased. After the historic moon landing and launch of Chandrayaan-3 a solar probe, Aditya-L1The Indian government has earmarked the country’s largest fund ever for future space projects — 10 billion rupees ($116 million) — announced in October last year.

However, experts told Al Jazeera that these funds are still minimal given the complexity and ambition of the upcoming projects.

The country’s space agency previously spent $74 million on Mars orbit, and $75 million on last year’s Chandrayaan-3. For comparison, NASA’s Mars orbiter cost $582 million in 2013, while Russia’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission, which crashed two days before landing, cost $133 million. Or consider the budgets of popular space thrillers like Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar ($165 million) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity ($100 million).

But is this a feature of the Indian space program or a bug?

Mylswamy Annadurai, who worked at ISRO for 36 years and served as director of its satellite center, recalled the famous photographs of Indian scientists transporting rocket parts on bicycles in 1963 before the country’s first rocket launch.

“Having completed its vision of education, health, weather forecasting and natural disaster monitoring, ISRO realized it was time to move forward into dreams that no one dared to see,” Annadurai said, recalling a conversation with APJ Abdul Kalam, according to Al Jazeera. renowned aerospace scientist and former President of India. “The next generation, we thought – ‘Why can’t we go beyond this?’

Annadurai led India’s first deep space mission, Chandrayaan-1, which made the landmark discovery of lunar water on the Moon, earning him the title of India’s ‘Man of the Moon’. It is also tasked with preparing project reports, including budget requirements, from the government.

“I was very, very clear that we cannot ask for a budget beyond the means of the Indian government. I had to justify the cost to the politicians,” he said, explaining why other space-going countries spend a fraction of what they put on missions.

“I know my father’s ability to fund my higher education,” Annadurai says with a laugh. “We also pushed ourselves to make the mission (Chandrayaan-1) possible within this budget (3.8 billion rupees ($44 million)) — and that ‘how’ question led to ingenious ways.”

Here’s how.

“We developed and flew just one hardware module, as opposed to four to five testers by other agencies,” said Annadurai, who listed the ways Indian space scientists are cutting costs. “Using humble jet carriers, ingenious designs to schedule longer, slower trips and use less fuel.”

Then he joked, “We’re second to none in terms of space programs, but we’re second to none when it comes to salaries,” Annadurai laughed again, “and that’s a good enough reason for low costs.”

According to Ashoka University’s Raychaudhuri, “juqaad” (an informal Hindi term meaning a problem-solving approach using simple resources) is “one of the distinguishing features of ISRO’s missions.”

However, he believes the focus on ISRO’s low-budget achievements is also a legacy of the Western media’s historical criticism and derision of India’s space efforts. In 2014, after India launched a robotic Mars probe, The New York Times ran a popular cartoon depicting a farmer with a cow knocking on the door of a room labeled “Elite Space Club” where suited people sat. The cartoon was called “racist” and the newspaper apologized after the controversy.

“We’re trying to justify that we’re doing it at a low cost. ISRO has new approaches and ensures very efficient use of resources,” Raychaudhury said.

But ISRO also deserves credit for its innovations, he added.

“This fixation on the budget is now becoming an obstacle,” Raychaudhury said.

“Innovation should be ISRO’s identity, not austerity.”