The final frontier

At a time when national pride is threatening to become a national embarrassment, the maturity and realism of the Indian space establishme...

At a time when national pride is threatening to become a national embarrassment, the maturity and realism of the Indian space establishment is like a breath of fresh air. They have steered well clear of the big-is-beautiful rhetoric that has dominated rocket science worldwide, concentrated on the lowest end of the satellite launch market and, with Wednesday8217;s PSLV launch at Sriharikota, demonstrated their capacity to take over a large chunk of this segment.

In fact, with the growth in mobile communications and digital radio, which use networks of satellites rather than single geostationary units, the demand for launchers for small satellites in polar orbit will grow exponentially. Iridium is only the first of a whole slew of projects that will deliver telephony, radio, television and data services worldwide.

Though it is getting into the market with experimental and research satellites, this is precisely the market that ISRO is geared to tap. Most important, it is offering the cheapest prices on themarket. Certainly, the PSLV launch is a triumph of indigenous science, but more so, it is that of its intelligent application.

While the Indian space industry is clearly going to be a major source of foreign exchange in the millennium, limited only by the speed with which it can build launch vehicles, it can also be a powerful facilitator of economic activity and social change on home shores. India8217;s development has been seriously hampered by its poor communications infrastructure. Land-based facilities are of indifferent quality and are expensive to upgrade or replace. At the same time, the prices of wireless and mobile communications systems are in steady decline.

Besides, land networks are notoriously difficult to extend, while satellite-based systems are relatively free of the tyranny of geography. It is time, perhaps, for our satellite program to shift its focus from remote sensing the satellites for both Wednesday8217;s launch and the next one are oceanographic, for instance to telecommunications.India desperately needs a system of comsats that offers direct public access, bypassing the land-based system.

Not only would such a system be more reliable and cheaper in the long run, it is also the only option that can reduce the information gap between town and country. India already has substantial remote sensing capability. In fact, Indian data and images are regularly used by NASA. Now, a different industry beckons.

In the very near future, space could easily be a lucrative industry for India. The Korean and German satellites launched yesterday went for a promotional price8217;, but perhaps ISRO could have gone ahead and charged its usual rate. The days when India had a 60-odd per cent success rate in space are long gone. Today, Indian satellite launch capabilities are taken seriously the world over.

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Sriharikota is perceived to be constrained only by its inability to handle big-payload launches and its former maximum of a launch a year. But even that is being addressed. The time for making a launchvehicle has already been halved and the range is due for a revamp. It appears that India is ready for another sunrise industry 8212; one that will, hopefully, result in social change as well as foreign exchange.