Opening up space

New policy will increase private participation

The Space Policy 2023 emphasises the paradigm shift that occurred in 2020, when the government decided to actively encourage private entities to enter space. The policy encourages collaborations and partnerships with industry and academia. It delineates the roles of three key entities. These are the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), and the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe). Isro will focus on developing new technologies, systems, and research and development. It will also share technologies, products, processes, and best practices with non-government entities (NGEs) and government companies. The operational aspect of Isro’s missions will be handled by NSIL, a public-sector undertaking that will interface with industry and commercialise Isro technology. NSIL will therefore be a go-between in enabling private industry participation in the space economy. IN-SPACe is to be a single-window agency for authorising space activities undertaken by government entities as well as NGEs. It could be described as an industry association. Its members include many space tech start-ups (there are at least 400 Indian start-ups), including start-ups funded by overseas capital, listed companies such as Bharti Airtel, and joint ventures like OneWeb, which has the backing of the UK government and Bharti.

The policy commits Isro to offer open data access from remote-sensing satellites. Specifically the data with ground sample distance (GSD) of 5 metres and higher will be free and freely accessible. The data with a GSD of less than 5 metres will be available for free only to government entities, and at a price for private entities. The policy dwells on human spaceflight and establishing a presence in space. Isro, which was already tasked with planning manned missions, will develop the technologies, infrastructure, and ecosystem for maintaining a sustained human presence in space — such as on a space station, or a moon base. This implies a new collaborative framework for research and development in domains related to human space activities, where Isro doesn’t currently possess expertise. Isro’s role also further expands to undertake studies and missions focused on in-situ resource utilisation by humans on celestial prospecting for water and minerals, etc.

In analogy, this moves closer to the model adopted by US space agency Nasa , which led to the rapid development of America’s space- and aerospace-oriented industrial complex. From inception, Nasa released data and licensed its multitude of patents, and it has also tendered out the manufacture of entire rockets, shuttles, as well as of components, while doing the design and setting specifications. As a result, technologies developed for space have become off-the-shelf. Space research has contributed to breakthroughs across areas as diverse as medicine, electronics, climate control, solar power, water and waste recycling, robotics, computer programming, and telemetry. This is quite apart from obvious applications in communications, and in defence-related areas. Opening up space to private participants could enable Isro to be at the centre of a similar flowering of Indian expertise across many domains. One area the policy does not address is investment and the attitude to foreign investment. This gap needs to be filled. At some stage, there will also be a need to review potential conflicts between the policy and India’s commitment to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, given expansion into activities such as prospecting.