Nearly 60 start-ups registered with ISRO since opening of space sector: Union Minister

Around 60 start-ups have registered with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since ''unlocking'' of the Indian space sector by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and quite a few of them are dealing with projects related to space debris management, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Monday.

The other start-up proposals vary from nano-satellite, launch vehicle, ground systems and research, the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Space said.

He was speaking after inaugurating the ''ISRO System for Safe & Sustainable Space Operation and Management'' (IS4OM) here.

''Nearly 60 start-ups have registered themselves to work with ISRO as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of unlocking the space. This includes a start-up 'Digantara' which is working on space debris management,'' Singh said.

The minister said Modi has broken ''many taboos of the past'' by allowing private players in unlocking the space sector through ISRO's commercial arm NewSpace India Limited.

Speaking about the space debris management, Singh said, ''Today, we have addressed an issue which is of great importance. It is related to space traffic management, which India has embarked on. We want a sustainable space sector.'' According to him, space debris and space traffic are the areas that need focus to avoid any damage to the satellites of strategic and commercial importance.

The initiative aims at predicting the fall of debris with accuracy and sending the debris to the ''graveyard'' space orbit.

Singh said IS4OM facility will aid India in achieving its SSA (Space Situational Awareness) goals by providing a comprehensive and timely information of the Space environment to users. This multi-domain awareness platform will bring a prompt, accurate and efficient information on on-orbit collision, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space based strategic information, hazardous asteroids and space weather forecast.

The facility, the minister said, is conceived with a holistic approach towards ensuring safety and sustainability while reaping the benefits of sustainable utilisation of outer space for national development.

According to him, ISRO has been taking necessary measures to safeguard all its space assets from intentional and accidental close approaches by space objects including operational spacecraft and space debris objects.

He added that Space Situational Awareness activities have many strategic implications such as identifying and monitoring other operational spacecraft with close approaches, having overpass over Indian region, intentional manoeuvres with suspicious motives and re-entry within the Indian region.

The minister further elaborated that IS4OM facility can support all routine operations safeguarding Indian space assets, mitigating collision threats from space objects through specific collision avoidance manoeuvres, information required for strategic purposes and research activities in space debris and Space Situational Awareness.

Singh said the importance of radars and optical telescopes as the main ground-based facilities for tracking space objects, including space debris, needs to be highlighted as accurate orbital information from such ground-based sensors is a prerequisite for mitigating any collision threats to an operational space asset from other objects.

''The backbone of the SSA system is the network of observational facilities in which the nation is lagging behind other space faring nations. It is required to set up necessary Indian observational facilities for a meaningful and value added SSA system development and alerts generation,'' the Minister added.

''India is taking a lead by dropping cues for others to follow,'' Singh said.

ISRO chairman S Somanath said the space debris management may involve usage of laser and electromagnetic means to clear the debris in future.

The initiative also encourages refuelling and reusing the debris, he added.

To a query on the crew escape system of ISRO's ambitious Gaganyaan project, Somanath said it is scheduled this year with a crew abort test to be conducted.

''We will have a crew abort test launch. We will intentionally create an abort. This will happen this year. We are targeting around September or October this year,'' the ISRO chairman said.

Regarding the launch of Gaganyaan, the minister said the project got delayed due to COVID-19, which was earlier planned around August 15, this year on the occasion of 75 years of Indian independence.