The world has taken notice of the Indian Space Missions because of their outstanding accomplishments at low cost. India has emerged as a major participant in the field of space exploration, despite the fact that its efforts were first neglected by several international powers. ISRO’s creative approach has been on display with the agency’s successful launch of low-budget missions to Mars and the Moon (Mars Orbiter Mission and Chandrayaan, respectively).
India’s standing in the global
ISRO has been able to achieve such cost savings because of its emphasis on frugality, in-house technological development, and responsible management. ISRO has accomplished remarkable things, such as entering Mars’ orbit on its first try, thanks to careful management of limited resources and a focus on the most crucial parts. This has raised India’s profile in the international space community. As such, India’s space missions are an example of how underdog nations may prove their mettle via innovation and resourcefulness, even if they are first ignored by the international community.
India’s future space missions
With Chandrayaan-3’s success, more low-cost space missions now have a chance.
After an unsuccessful attempt at landing on the lunar south pole four years before, experts from the Indian space agency set out to construct the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission.
They were also on a tight budget, allocating a total of just Rs. 6.15 billion to the undertaking.
The success of the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) demonstrates, according to officials, vendors, and commentators, how ISRO has refined a system of accomplishing more with less.
Compared with global instances
Future missions, like bringing people into orbit and a project to study the sun scheduled for flight next month, will test ISRO’s track record for cost-effective innovation.
The Indian government spent almost 25 percent less than the equivalent of $1.66 billion (roughly Rs. 13,700 crore) on the space program during the fiscal year that ended in March. The total allocated spending for the current fiscal year comes to $1.52 billion (about Rs. 12,560 crore).
NASA, in comparison, has a budget of $25 billion this year, which is equivalent to about Rs. 2,06,585 crore. NASA’s yearly budget increase of $1.3 billion (almost Rs. 10,750 crore) was more than the whole budget of ISRO.
On Wednesday, ISRO chairman and experienced aerospace engineer S Somanath proclaimed, “No one in the world can do it like we do” after Chandrayaan safely touched down on Earth. ISRO chose to take a more circuitous path to the moon with Chandrayaan-3 in order to save money by using less powerful propulsion systems. In order to employ Earth’s gravitational pull as a slingshot, Chandrayaan-3 looped through increasingly large orbits for more than 40 days.
The Russian Luna-25 mission, which also tried to land on the moon’s south pole before crashing, took a more direct route to the moon. Russia has been silent about the cost of the aborted operation.
What made Chandrayaan 3 cost-effective?
According to Somak Raychaudhury, an astrophysicist and vice-chancellor of Ashoka University, “to take a direct route takes more power, more fuel, and is far more expensive.”
The cameras, altimeter, and danger avoidance sensors aboard the lander were all created by ISRO. In order to maintain a low price point, it relied on Indian vendors for car assembly, transportation, and electronics. And it helped keep costs down by reducing the number of design iterations.
We were able to significantly lower the costs by using locally sourced equipment and design features. Amit Sharma, CEO of Tata Consulting Engineers, a vendor to ISRO for the Chandrayaan-3 project, told Reuters that a comparable setup by an international vendor would cost four to five times as much.
Saving every last of the resources
ISRO has retained several of the scientists who participated in the 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission, which was an unsuccessful attempt to land on the lunar south pole.
In September, ISRO plans to launch the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, a solar observatory in orbit around the Earth. ISRO’s Somanath has said that human spaceflight might begin as early as 2025.
Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration seeks to open the industry to international investment, vendors believe ISRO’s achievement would provide a boost to the country’s private-sector space start-ups.
There were instances when components had to be carried by hand to a launchpad in order to fulfill a deadline, according to Ankit Patel, founder and director of Ankit Fasteners, which has supplied nuts, bolts, and other fasteners to ISRO since 1994.
“The unsung heroes of ISRO are the engineers who are pushing their suppliers every day to achieve the set timeline,” Patel said to Reuters.
When asked about ISRO’s spending, he said, “ISRO has been very frugal.” ISRO must be creative in order to make every cent count.
Conclusion
The success of India’s most recent space mission attests to the country’s rapid technological and scientific advancements in this field. India’s confidence in space exploration and technology has grown in the six decades since its first rocket launch.
Thanks to the efforts of young business leaders like Chandana, India’s private space-tech sector is already brimming with promising prospects. There was talk only a few years ago of India’s space industry being worth more than $9.6 billion by 2020. EY India estimates that this number might reach $13 billion by 2025. India’s space-tech boom offers tremendous prospects for expansion. The Chandrayaan-3 mission has promise for India’s space sector, and it also has the potential to attract investments and enhance the industry.
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