Indian industry has to step in to share ISRO’s burden as the agency gets busy putting a man in space, according to K Sivan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Addressing the sixth edition of Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX-2018), here on Wednesday, he said: “In the next four years, ISRO will be completely busy with Gaganyaan (mission to put the first Indian in space) and we expect the industry to fill the gap and help us.”
On business opportunities in the space sector, Sivan said ISRO has an allocated-budget for 40 launch vehicles (30 PSLV and 10 GSLV Mark III) over the next three years. This will cost around ₹10,400 crore of which more that ₹9,000 crore will be with the industry.
BSX-2018 is organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with ISRO and the Department of Space. The three-day event consists of an international exhibition and conference on ‘World Space-Biz.’
Huge opportunity
He said India currently has 45 satellites and will launch at least 59 more over the next three years. This means a minimum of two launches a month. This, according to him, will be a huge opportunity for the industry.
Sivan elaborated on the future missions on PSLV and GSLV, including Chandrayaan-2, and highlighted the need for industries to play a bigger role in India’s space programme.
ISRO today faces the challenge to tie up the technology in four years and it needs to increasingly partner with private sector to achieve it.
Strong pillars
In India’s space programmes, academia and industry have been the pillars. “ISRO, right from the beginning, has benefited academia and industry. It is here we want to take it to the next level with the partnership,” said Sivan.
“As the intellectual property lies with ISRO, it is the physical activity which is done by the industry. Nearly 80 per cent of rocket and 50 per cent of satellite components are made by industry,” he said.
“Slowly the participation has been increasing. Now ISRO wants a fast-paced activity by not just making spares, the industry must involve more in making subsystems and initiatives to allow them develop satellites and rockets as well,” he said.
Small satellite market
According to Sivan, ISRO is in the process of setting up six incubation centres across India to encourage start-ups and SMEs play a greater role in the space sector.
Speaking on the importance of small satellites, Sivan said currently there is a growing demand for small satellites due to cost optimisation. The demand could be more than 11,000 satellites over the next few years.
To capture this market, ISRO is developing a small launcher, capable of putting 500-700-kg satellites in orbit. He said the total integration of the launch vehicle will take place in just 72 hours through automation allowing for the production of 56-60 vehicles per year. According to him, once the development of the vehicle is over ISRO will hand it over to the industry for production.