India has the ability to develop a space station – yet it’s still unclear whether it will.
This is the statement of Indian Space Research Organization chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar at the foundation day ceremonies of the Raja Ramanna Center for Advanced Technology in the country on Monday, Feb. 20.
Space Station Plans On The Horizon
According to Kumar, they are still in talks about the immediate benefits of a manned space mission, citing the need for funds and time as to why the country has not decided on when to invest on a space station.
“The day the country takes the decision, we will ‘ok’ the project,” he said in an India Times report, emphasizing that the project requires long-term thinking along with policy and funding support.
A space station is a crewed satellite that is designed to stay in low Earth orbit for long periods of time, studying the results and consequences of long-term spaceflight in humans. Today only one space station is operating: the International Space Station, a joint effort of NASA, Russia, and the European Union.
China’s own Tiangong-1 space station is unmanned.
Kumar added that the Indian space agency was also considering partnering with the private space sector to enhance its satellite-launching ability, and mentioned the need to up the number of satellites that monitor land and weather conditions in India and fortify its communication network.
He pointed to a need to conduct about 18 launches every year, or triple its current capacity.
In a commentary, LiveMint pointed to why ISRO managed to deliver on such groundbreaking level that few other government agencies of its kind was able to.
“ISRO’s current chairman, A.S. Kiran Kumar, is also chairman of the Space Commission and secretary of DOS [Department of Space]. This setup has promoted vertical integration between policymakers — who are in a position to understand the nature of the long-term projects ISRO undertakes — and those delivering the end results,” the publication noted.
Satellite Launch Feat
ISRO is fresh from the success of its record-breaking 104-satellite launch aboard a single rocket. Last Feb. 15, it launched the rocket from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C37 carried a payload of 103 nano-satellites coming from India as well as Kazakhstan, Israel, the United States, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. It also transported the Earth observation instrument Cartosat-2.
No other nation has so far launched 104 satellites from a single rocket in one go, making the feat a huge and important one for ISRO. The Russian space agency Roscosmos held the previous record at 37 satellites in one rocket launch.
India also hiked its spending on space technology and research, believing that space exploration investments will yield positive returns for the country. It is mostly gearing up for two missions, each leading to Mars and Venus, with the Mars Orbiter Mission II possibly including a lander and likely to launch in 2021.
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission arrived in the planet’s orbit back in September 2014, its first-ever interplanetary mission that came with a $74 million price tag.
The nation finds a Mars mission rival in its Asian neighbor China, which aims to send a Mars probe by 2020 after a probe on the far side of the moon by late 2018.
