He was speaking at an interaction before the convocation ceremony at DAIICT on Saturday.
Speaking of SpaDeX as the first step in a legion of milestones of space capability that ISRO has to demonstrate in line with the vision of a manned mission, Dr Somanath said, “What has just been completed is the SpaDeX experiment, which was the first in the line of docking experiments we need to complete in space. It is a very challenging activity. It involves bringing two objects close to each other through appropriate use of sensors and algorithms. We have completed it in a circular orbit. It is more challenging because we have to carry out such demonstrations at a very low cost and we have successfully done so.”
Asked about the SpaDeX success in context of the Gemini missions of NASA, which were a precursor to the Apollo missions that put a man on the moon, Dr Somanath said, “This alone is not the only docking experiment we need to do. We need to study docking in various other ways. The first challenge is to complete docking in other orbits including the elliptical orbit. This is much more difficult because the orientation of the objects change, and bringing two objects together which are both in elliptical orbits is much more difficult than docking with objects in a circular orbit.”
He added, “Another step that we need to achieve is docking with real- life systems, which includes docking with space stations,” he said.
On what comes right after the first successful docking mission, the former ISRO chairman explained, “Immediately after this, ISRO will conduct further docking experiments…what we will do is de-dock and dock once again. What we need to achieve next is automatic docking without human intervention.”
Speaking on docking goals in the short-term, Dr Somanath said, “What we ultimately want to do is make sure that the object can go and dock by itself so that is what is going to happen in further trials. Going forward, the docking system itself will improve with advanced algorithms and sensors.”
India’s indigenous space docking system
On developing an indigenous docking system for India, he said, “We have to work on making our own space docking system. If you want to go and dock with the ISS, you need a standard docking system. Half the part of a docking system is already there (on the modules). We have to develop the other half that can allow our vehicles to dock with them. Before making our own docking system, we will buy some of the existing docking systems and use them in our trials. (Then further down the line) develop our own system. So multiple steps are required before we can possibly dock into the ISS, if they so allow.”
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Since there are primarily two types of docking or berthing systems, one American and the other Russian, Dr Somanath answered a question on the path India would take. He said, “We will be developing our own docking system so it won’t be like either of them but there are some elements, which are common to both. There are different standards needed to dock to the American side and Russian side of the ISS. So, what we are trying to do is make use of the best of both worlds.”
ISRO & private sector
Asked about ISRO collaboration with the private space sector in India, he said, “The space sector reforms announced by the GoI in 2020 were primarily to help the private sector grow in everything they want to do — building rockets, satellite, technologies, applications. So what we are doing is helping them with a regulatory environment, policy wise to make sure they are not stopped, make sure they get enough funding and there are investors…They should be able to bring in foreign direct investment. We also brought policies by which technology transfer is easy. We also brought a policy where ISRO facilities can be used by them without much
cost…”
Dr Somanath added, “Second is that we use technology developed in the private sector and then used by ISRO. We also buy satellites from the private sector to use by ISRO. We are also using private companies to assemble and test our satellites. In addition, we are giving them facilities to launch private rockets.”
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