Technology beyond space

Encouraging private sector will increase opportunities

India’s presence in the global civil space economy could increase dramatically if the new Indian Space Policy works as intended. The space economy is defined as a range of activities and use of resources to create value while exploring, researching, managing, and utilising space. This segment is reckoned to be worth roughly $500 billion. India contributes less than 2 per cent at around $8 billion. The space policy targets pushing that contribution up to around $45 billion over the next 10 years. This expansion involves a multi-pronged effort. InSpace, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), will seek new opportunities. Isro will focus on transferring its technical knowhow and providing support such as access to its facilities to India Inc, which can look to absorb that intellectual property and find new ways to exploit it. The organisation tenders out for its components after doing design and setting specifications. Hence, Indian engineering concerns already have a fair grasp of aerospace requirements. Around 85 per cent of the components of Chandrayaan-3, including the rockets, were manufactured by commercial organisations. In addition India signing the Artemis Accords implies Indian companies would be eligible to bid for future contracts of National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This would multiply potential opportunities.

India already has over 400 startups focused on aerospace, as well as a host of large engineering outfits which have established a toehold in space. Greater access to Isro’s technology, and its testing apparatus, will accelerate this process. Many companies ranging from giants like Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to distressed public-sector undertakings like Heavy Engineering Corporation and specialised outfits like Paras Defence are already Isro’s partners. About 50,000 satellites are likely to be launched in the next 10 years and India could pick up a big chunk of this market. Isro is famously frugal but the private sector usually finds ways to reduce costs and, of course, scale always leads to cost reductions. The entry of private players has reduced satellite launch costs by close to 90 per cent on a per kilogram basis. Several consortiums of Indian firms are looking to enter the satellite launch market. The transfer of technologies will mean they will be capable of building rockets end-to-end as well as establish their own launch facilities.

The positive externalities of the space economy are huge since it is an enabler of growth and innovation. It drives applications across sectors as diverse as meteorology, agro-sciences, energy, telecommunications, insurance, transport, maritime support, mining exploration, civil aviation, road and power line alignments, forest cover management, and urban development. Given the wide variety of sectors in play, creating hardware, software, and applications across many new niches is possible. This is quite apart from the potential for adapting dual-use technologies for defence. Plus there is the promise of new frontiers like mining asteroids for rare metals and gases, and the possibility that space habitats can be adapted for marine exploration, or off-the-shelf applications like better vacuum cleaners, toilets, wastewater recycling, and air-filtration systems. India’s vast engineering workforce could therefore find new opportunities in a variety of ways. The need thus for governments around the world is to find a balance in terms of allowing private sector exploitation of space via light-touch regulation, while trying to ensure the avoidance of environmental and other hazards.