Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the Republic of Tunisia on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes” was signed today (June 11, 2019) at ISRO Headquarters. Mr. Nejmeddine Lakhal, Ambassador of Tunisia to India and Dr. B. Bala Bhaskar, Joint Secretary, West Asia & North Africa (WANA) Division of MEA were present during this occasion.
Source: https://www.ISRO.gov.in/
HAL delivered a Chetak helicopter ahead of schedule to Indian Navy. The documents were handed over by Mr S. Anbuvelan, General Manager of Helicopter Division-HAL to Commodore Vikram Menon, VSM, CSO(Air), HQNA in an event held at HAL facilities here, today. HAL entered into a contract with the Indian Navy in August 2017 for supply of eight Chetak helicopters with the delivery schedule of first two in August 2019 and balance in August 2020. These helicopters are fitted with latest communication and navigation systems developed by HAL and the Company is committed to provide continuous support to the Chetak fleet, says Mr R Madhavan, CMD-HAL. Speaking on the occasion, Commodore Menon said, “It is an honour to accept the first production helicopter one month ahead of schedule. We are aware of the vital role played by Chetak helicopters in Indian Naval aviation for the past five decades. HAL and Indian Navy have shared a long fruitful relationship. We appreciate HAL’s commitment and look for continued support in future”. Mr GVS Bhaskar, CEO-Helicopter Complex said, “HAL has successfully restarted the Chetak helicopter production line after incorporating latest technologies. We are committed to deliver the remaining seven helicopters as per the delivery schedule”, he added. HAL is producing the Chetak Helicopters for last five decades under license from Eurocopter, France (now Airbus Helicopters) and the first Chetak helicopter to the Indian Navy was delivered way back in February 1966. These helicopters are used by Navy for communication duties (Passenger transport), Cargo/ Material transport, Casualty evacuation, Search & Rescue, Areal survey & Patrolling, Emergency medical services, electronic news gathering, Anti hijacking, Off shore operation and Under-slung operation. HAL has so far produced more than 350 Chetak helicopters and delivered around 80 to the Indian Navy. Presently, 51 helicopters are flying with Navy and the serviceability has always remained high. HAL is supporting Navy for periodical servicing of these helicopters, clearance of spares, deputation of teams for defect rectification and any other requirement for maintainability of these helicopters.
Source: https://hal-india.co.in/
Delhi has plans to purchase rocket engines from Moscow for its growing national space program, Russia’s deputy prime minister has said coinciding with Chandrayaan-2 launch. Deputy Prime Minister Mr Yury Borisov told reporters here about the planned rocket sales, and recognized India’s achievement in its latest mission to explore the Moon, according to the RIA news agency. “Today we congratulated our Indian colleagues on the successful launch of the lunar program,” Mr Borisov said, adding that the two countries would work together on manned space flights in the future. He did not provide further details about the rocket engine sales. Earlier this month when NSA Mr A K Doval met DG Roscosmos (Russian Space Agency) and former Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin here, it was decided that Russia will transfer critical technology for Gaganyan project besides other futuristic space programmes and partner Delhi for joint collaborations including presence at the prestigious International Space Station (ISS). This including cooperation in futuristic technologies including new space systems, rocket engines, propellants and propulsion systems, spacecrafts and launch vehicle technology were discussed at Doval-Rogozin meet. There have been frequent contacts between the two space agencies to finalise the details of the Gaganyaan Mission, which will carry Indian astronaut to space in 2022, to coincide with India’s 75th anniversary of Independence. Russia has promised all assistance for India’s Human Space Flight Mission Gaganyaan. Details regarding cooperation for the Gaganyaan Mission were discussed at the Doval-Rogozin meet. Russia had earlier decided to train Indian astronauts for the prestigious Gaganyan project. “Russia is today a world leader in space program and technology. Russian firm Energia has even supplied engines to USA. America is also a partner with Russia in the International Space Station. And during NSA-Rogozin meet the Russian side stated that they would like to see India participate in the International Space Station,” a source informed. The ISS is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS). Cooperation in space has emerged as a key area of cooperation in the high technology sector between India and Russia. India’s rapidly growing capabilities in outer space is being acknowledged and Russia sees India as a key partner for promoting peaceful uses of outer space, one of the persons familiar with the issue informed. Delhi share an old association with Moscow in space sector that includes Rakesh Sharma’s space flight and supply of cryogenic engines to India. Both sides have agreed to take a strategic approach to elevate bilateral cooperation to the next level keeping in mind the special and privileged partnership and India’s priorities such as Make in India programme.
Source : Economic Times
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, recognised by the Govt of India as an Institution of Eminence, has entered into an agreement with five of the renowned National Laboratories of CSIR Viz CSIR-Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute, CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, CSIR-Institute of Minerals & Materials Technology, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India by signing an MoU. The MoU was signed by the Directors of above five laboratories and Prof V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi on 16th July 2019 in the presence of Dr Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR. Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi in his opening remarks said that IIT Delhi has been pioneering in providing its students and faculty with world class infrastructure and conducive environment for research. He specially spoke about the collaborations of IIT Delhi with scientists of other institutes. It is planned to initiate about 60 Interdisciplinary Research projects with the five CSIR laboratories this year. Welcoming the partnership, Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, Director General, CSIR said that the CSIR laboratories can benefit immensely with such collaborations that are in the mutual interest areas of research and together it can participate more proactively in solving nation’s persisting problem in the areas of science and technology, healthcare. Such collaboration will have profound impact on nation’s growth in totality. Prof B.R. Mehta, Dean R&D, IIT Delhi mentioned that there is a large scope for interaction and collaboration with CSIR Laboratories in the areas of devices, materials and industry scale and reference materials processes. As a part of MoU, IIT Delhi plans to promote collaborative research, exchange of ideas, development of knowledge, enhancing high quality research throughput. IIT Delhi also aspires to leverage the expertise of the CSIR laboratories not only to contribute to the socio economic needs of the country but also to serve the greater vision of serving the nation. The MoU would also serve as a platform to students, faculty and other research scholars equally to contribute towards research and development growth of nation and fuelling its growth. The research activities undertaken through this MoU will make best utilisation of already existing Infrastructure, expertise and vast experience of IIT Delhi and the participating CSIR laboratories.
Source: http://www.iitd.ac.in/
What is the issue?
The Indian space industry is in need of some serious revolutions as it is lagging behind in the global space industry with its share in it being very minimal.
What is India’s share in the global space economy?
- Today, the value of the global space industry is estimated to be $350 billion and is likely to exceed $550 billion by 2025.
- India’s share is estimated as just 2% of the global market.
- Globally, 17,000 small satellites are expected to be launched between now and 2030.
What is the current stance?
- Today, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) annual budget has crossed ₹10,000 crore, growing steadily from ₹6,000 crore five years ago.
- However, demand for space-based services in India is far greater than what ISRO can supply.
- So, private sector investment is critical.
- There is a need for national legislation to ensure overall growth of the space sector.
What are ISRO’s thrust areas?
- Satellite communication – With INSAT and GSAT as backbone, it addresses the national needs for telecommunication, broadcasting and broadband infrastructure, disaster management services, etc.,
- Earth observation – By the usage of space-based imagery for a slew of national demands, like weather forecasting, disaster management and national resource mapping and planning. It is done using,
- Geographical Information Systems’ (GIS) applications
- Indian Remote Sensing (IRS), RISAT, Cartosat and Resourcesat series.
- Satellite-aided navigation – The GPS-aided GEO augmented navigation (GAGAN) has civil aviation applications and is used for air traffic management over Indian airspace.
- Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) or Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) provides accurate positioning service for civilian and military use.
What are some missions of ISRO?
- The Chandrayaan and the Mangalyaan missions, with a manned space mission, Gaganyaan planned for its first test flight in 2021.
- None of this would have been possible without mastering the launch-vehicle technologies which includes,
- Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) and
- Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV),
- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has an enviable record.
- Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) which is still developing.
- Over the years, ISRO built a strong association with the industry, particularly with Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) but most of the private sector players are Tier-2/Tier-3 vendors.
What ‘New Space’ start-ups are up to?
- New Space entrepreneurship has emerged in India who are not enamoured of the traditional vendor/supplier model.
- They see value in exploring end-to-end services in the Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer segments.
- Developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics has led to their emergence.
- They see a role as a data-app builder between the data seller (ISRO/Antrix) and the end user by taking advantage of the talent pool, innovation competence and technology know-how.
- They are yet to take off in the absence of regulatory clarity.
What changes should be made in the Indian space industry?
- Clear rules and regulations are essential.
- As said above, Private sector investment is critical, for which a suitable policy environment needs to be created.
- A new Space law for India – With the aim of facilitating growing India’s share of global space economy which requires a new kind of partnership between ISRO, the established private sector and the New Space entrepreneurs.
- ISRO should actively embrace an exclusively civilian identity, as the Ministry of Defence now setting up a Defence Space Agency and a Defence Space Research Organisation.
- Small satellite revolution –ISRO is developing a small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) expected to be ready in 2019.
- Along with PSLV, it is a prime candidate to be farmed out to the private sector.
- This requires giving it responsibility for Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT) activities, which is now restricted to ISRO.
- Village Resource Centres – Years ago, ISRO launched this to work in collaboration with local panchayats and NGOs.
- Expanding this for rural areas has the potential to transform rural India.
Source: The Hindu
India’s second sojourn to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, would be launched on July 15, Indian Space Research Organisation announced, as it is all set for the most complex mission ever undertaken by it. Under the nearly Rs 1,000 crore mission, the landing on the moon near the South Pole would be on September 6 or 7 of 2019 on an uncharted territory, ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan said. The Lander, named after the father of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, will touch down on a rugged lunar surface in the final descent, which, according to Dr K Sivan, would be the “most terrifying moment” of the mission. “This 15 minutes is going to be terrifying to all of us not only people from ISRO, but for entire India, because the space agency has never undertaken such type of complex flight. This 15 minutes flight is the most complex mission ISRO has ever undertaken,” he said. The landing site, at about 70 degrees south latitude, is the southernmost for any mission, not attempted before by any country, according to ISRO, as the Indian space agency eyed an ambitious feat after missing many dates. The launch would take place at 2.51 am on board the GSLV MK-III vehicle, the heaviest rocket built by ISRO, from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The ISRO had earlier kept the launch window for the mission from July 9 to July 16. Soft-landing on the south pole of the moon, a territory that has never been visited by any spacecraft, is considered the most challenging part of the mission. Pointing out Chandrayaan 2 is going to South Pole, a place where nobody else has gone, Dr K Sivan said the entire scientific community of the nation and the globe were eagerly waiting for the mission. According to him, there is both convenience and science involved for choosing the South Pole. “From the science point of view, the south pole is under shadow region more than North Pole, so because of this special aspect of south pole, water is expected to be more there and also more minerals are expected to be there,” he added. “Subsequently the rover will be rowing on the moon on its own propulsion at the speed of 1 cm per second and will cover 500 metres in its lifetime,” he added. “Whole country is waiting for this Chandrayaan-2 mission, yes ISRO has slipped (dates) many times, now ISRO has firmed up the date of launch, it is July 15 early morning at 2:51,” Dr K Sivan told reporters here. Chandrayaan 2 will also have the credit of being India’s first interplanetary mission to be steered by two women- with Mrs M Vanitha as Project Director and Mrs Ritu Karidhal as Mission Director. Chandrayaan will carry 13 Indian payloads (8 on orbiter, 3 on lander and 2 on rover) and one passive experiment from NASA. The mission cost of Chandrayaan-2 with regard to the satellite was Rs 603 crore, he noted. The cost of GSLV MK IIIis Rs 375 crore.
Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
NASA’s efforts to get astronauts to land on the moon by 2024 will now have a key contribution from India. Bengaluru-based private firm Team Indus is part of a consortium that has bagged a contract from the US space agency to design and build a lander for its next lunar mission in 2020. In a statement earlier this week, NASA said it has selected three such consortia — commercial moon-landing service providers — to deliver science and technology payloads under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as part of the Artemis lunar exploration programme. Among the three players is US-based Orbit Beyond, a consortium of nine firms, including Team Indus. Team Indus is the only company with lander-making credentials. Orbit Beyond, a private firm, is leading the consortium. The other seven firms in the consortium specialise in other aspects of aerospace and space technology. Confirming the development, Team Indus engineer Mr Ananth Ramesh told . “Yes, we will be building the lander. It is most likely to be built in India too.” Team Indus CEO Mr Rahul Narayan was in the US to sign the contract documents. The consortium, which has proposed to fly four payloads to Mare Imbrium, a lava plain in one of the Moon’s craters by September 2020, has been awarded $97 million. “Our selection of these US commercial landing service providers represents America’s return to the Moon’s surface for the first time in decades, and it’s a huge step forward for our Artemis lunar exploration plans,” NASA administrator Mr Jim Bridenstine said in the statement. Of the three consortia, Orbit Beyond, and therefore Team Indus, have the shortest deadline with barely 15 months to go. Each commercial lander will carry NASA-provided payloads that will conduct investigations and demonstrate advanced technologies on the lunar surface, paving the way for NASA astronauts to land on the lunar surface. NASA said the learning from these missions will not only “change our view of the universe, but also prepare our human missions to the Moon and eventually Mars”.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
An Indian aviation firm has achieved dual milestone with Boeing by delivering the 2000th harness for the Osprey and the 1000th electrical panel for the Apache of the global aerospace major, the company said. Boeing India in a statement said, it “remains committed to investing in India’s supplier capability and a local workforce across manufacturing engineering services, training and skills-development, to create a world-class aerospace ecosystem in India”. Rossell Techsys has been a long-standing Boeing supplier in India, since 2013, the global aviation bellwether said. The contract for AH-64 Apache components was awarded to the Indian firm in March 2017, and the V-22 Osprey components in August 2017. In January 2019, Rossell delivered the 15,000th wire harness to Boeing for the AH-64 Apache, it added. Boeing also partners with Rossell Techsys on skilling initiatives to prepare a future ready aerospace workforce. These curricula and initiatives are training workers on aerospace-relevant skills to support India’s growing aerospace ecosystem, it said.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com/
ISRO has been launching indigenously made sounding rockets since 1965, and in 1975, all sounding rocket activities were consolidated under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme ISRO, India’s premier space research organisation, has invited proposals from the national and international scientific community for innovative payloads for scientific experiments to study the middle and upper atmospheric regions. The ‘Announcement of Opportunity’ (AO) is for scientific payloads to be carried on the Indian Space Research Organisation’s sounding rockets. The sounding rocket carries instruments and has been designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. They are generally one or two-stage solid propellant rockets and have been used in the context of taking measurements. Some of the research avenues that can be explored with sounding rockets are aerosol experiments, middle atmospheric winds, temperature and composition, meteor smoke particle detection, ionospheric electron density, irregularities and ion composition, plasma, solar and astrophysics, and so on. Along the same lines, ISRO has invited proposals with innovative ideas in the realms of atmospheric and space sciences, astronomy and astrophysics from scientists from member nations of the United Nations. Also, the payload of a sounding rocket consists of nose cone, payload cylinder, ejection and/or separation mechanism, mounting decks, avionics systems and scientific instruments. The launch station has tracking radars with real time data processing and data uplink system, says ISRO. Those interested can send the proposals to Director, Space Science Programme Office, ISRO HQ, Antariksh Bhavan, New BEL Road, Bangalore 560231, Email: srao@ISRO.gov.in by 31 December 2019. For more details on the Announcement of Opportunity’ do check the brochure available on the official ISRO website.
Source: https://www.dqindia.com/
The Navy issued an ‘Expression of Interest’ for shortlisting potential strategic partners for the construction of six P-75 (I) submarines costing nearly ₹45,000 crore, the Defence Ministry said on. This is the second project being undertaken under the latest Strategic Partnership (SP) Model, with the first being the procurement of 111 naval utility helicopters (NUH). This will provide a major boost to the indigenous design and construction capability of submarines in India, in addition to bringing in the latest submarine design and technologies as part of the project, the Navy said. “As a major initiative towards ‘Make in India’, the government immediately on taking over has issued the Expression of Interest(s) for shortlisting of potential Indian Strategic Partners (SPs) for “construction of six conventional submarines for P-75(I) project of the Indian Navy on June 20,” it said. The case was approved by the Defence Acquisition Council on January 31, 2019. The Expression of Interest (EoI) for shortlisting of Indian strategic partners has been uploaded on the Defence Ministry and Navy websites.
Source: The Hindu