NISAR space plan with US example of India's cost-effectiveness: Somanath

Somanath stressed on greater private sector role to push India's contribution in the global space economy from current 2 per cent to 10 per cent

Former Isro chairman S Somanath has highlighted the cost-effectiveness of India's space programmes and noted that for the same satellite and share of work, the country will incur five-time less expenditure compared to the US for an upcoming mission.

He was referring to the NASA-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission.

The joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)-Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) project will map the entire globe and provide data for understanding changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and natural hazards.

Somanath on Wednesday stressed on greater private sector role to push India's contribution in the global space economy from current 2 per cent to 10 per cent.

Taking about NISAR, a joint Earth-observing radar mission, he said one part of the payload is being developed by the US, and the other by India.

The former Isro chief was speaking at an interactive session on the topic, "India Tomorrow: Unlocking Industry, Innovation, Talent", at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA).

"The main bus of the satellite is being done by India, and we are going to launch. But if India has spent x amount of money for this satellite mission, the money spent by the US is five times x. For the same satellite, for the same share of work, their expenditure is five times. I don't know what is happening in USA, really. I know I can do it at x cost," he told the gathering.

Sharing various aspects of cost-effective space missions undertaken by the Isro, Somanath pointed out that in India, the approach is to bring down development cost.

More emphasis on simulation and less on actual hardware testing, reuse of everything to recover the cost and support from India's manufacturing sector, which facilitates high-end jobs at a substantially low cost, are some of the reasons that make Indian space missions cheaper than its counterparts in the US and Europe, he opined.

The cost cannot come down drastically because materials involved in building are all the same. Aluminium, steel and electronic parts are actually costlier in India than in the US, because aluminium for building rockets is coming from Europe, electronic chips are imported, and steel is, of course, made in India, he said.

"But many items are coming from outside and there is no way they can be made cheaper than that you can do in the US or Europe," observed Somanath.

"Then what is the magic, you can ask. The whole magic is in terms of various components that are actually peripherally available to build the system," said Somanath who retired as the Isro head last month after the end of a three-year tenure.

Sharing his experience of working on costing for various projects, Somanath said at the Isro he was trained internally "to look at the frugal way of doing it".

"First you must make up your mind what you are going to do at the lowest cost. If you know how to jack up the cost, you can do it. You can also do it the other way -- how to bring down the cost by appropriate managerial intervention," said the aerospace engineer under whose chairmanship the Isro launched Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, in 2023.

"Our approach is always to bring down development costs. Unit cost of the rocket cannot be brought down drastically, but you can always bring down the cost of development. You can give more trust on simulations and analysis and less on actual hardware testing. You can also recycle hardware. The principle we follow at the Isro is to reuse everything to recover the cost," he noted.

Somanath praised the manufacturing sector for its contribution to space missions.

"Another secret is our industries. Finally, India is the best place to do high-end manufacturing at a substantially low cost," he said.

Somanath emphasised that though India is a leading space power, the overall investment the country has made in this sector is very small, and pushed for participation of private entrepreneurs.

He said India should create a business case for the space sector.

"This is a crucial issue we discussed in recent times. We found that it is not possible for the government to create additional investment in the space sector substantially. One of the important elements of the vision is participation of private entrepreneurs in the space sector in a big way, which we have not done," the former Isro chairman contended.

"We have not done this in the past because we thought space to be such an exclusive club, with secret work which you should keep with the government. This idea has to be removed, and we have done this in the last two years. We made a very open and public message that it is for private industries to participate in the space sector and find a business case," he said.

Somanath observed that the government must increase investment in areas where the private sector finds it difficult to put money such as space exploration and building a space station, among others.

"Slowly, this technology strength created out of public funding will move to private hands at a later point when there is a profitability and business available. This transition has to happen in five years. Then our contribution to the space economy will grow from hardly 2 per cent in the global economy to 10 per cent in the global economy," he added.