India
Gaganyaan tracking station site completed, Aus-India sats to launch on SSLV, Skyroot rocket | India News – Times of India
BENGALURU: As Isro gears up for multiple unmanned tests and flights as part of Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space mission, progress has been made on the temporary ground station tracking facilities at Cocos (Keeling) Islands in Australia.
“…The Indian team has visited the islands, surveyed the site and confirmed it is the right location and they are now working with an Australian project manager to set up the facilities,” Australian Space Agency (ASA) Enrico Palermo told TOI in an exclusive interview.
TOI was the first to report that Isro was exploring the Cocos Islands for its tracking station. Palermo called Gaganyaan an inspiring mission and said: “We are doing that [tracking station] “Through an implementation arrangement from a government-to-government perspective and the reason India chose the islands is that if you look at the trajectory of the Gaganyaan flights, it is the optimum place for tracking telemetry and control,” he said.
He said he and his team would discuss further collaborations with Isro this week on the human spaceflight program and that the tracking station was just the first part. “We are also working on supporting India with scenarios where you could have contingency scenarios. So again, if you look at the trajectory of the spacecraft, if there are aborts and the crew needs to be recovered, that will be in Australian waters,” Palermo said.
He said that ASA made sure that it was there to support India, if there were any unforeseen circumstances in that matter. From that point on, ASA is exploring with India how we can contribute to Gaganyaan as a partner in science, partner in industry.
“Australia can bring expertise in applied space medicine, life sciences. If you look at our work that we do in Antarctica or remote medicine in Australia, that is very transferable to human spaceflight. As ambitions for robotic exploration grow, how do we bring in Australian robotics and autonomy experience? Other areas could be optical communications,” he said.
Joint satellites
In addition, the island continent is funding partnerships between Australian and Indian companies, three of which are in advanced stages of realisation.
The missions are: the AU$5.8 million LatConnect60 satellite to monitor carbon emissions, the AU$8.5 million Space Machines Company and Bengaluru-based Digantara Space MAITRI mission (Mission for Australia-India’s Technology, Research, and Innovation), to demonstrate space transportation and reduce space debris, and a AU$3.7 million project by Skykraft to develop a novel positioning, navigation and timing system for satellite constellations.
“We will see at least two of those satellites launched from India as part of the deal. So a special SSLV launch for Space Machines with NSIL and then we will see the launch of the LatConnect 60 satellite with Skyroot, one of the upcoming launch startups here in India,” Palermo said.
Quad, climate and more
He pointed out that ASA and Isro are working together on a number of initiatives under the Quad Space Working Group. These include looking at how to address extreme precipitation, a proposal led by India, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change.
“…As part of last year’s G20 celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the G20 Climate Satellite and Australia is exploring how we can contribute a payload to that satellite in various Earth observation technologies,” he said.
He stated that the commercial space ecosystem in India and Australia is similar to a majority of small to medium enterprises and startups looking to scale. He said, “…how can we learn from each other and scale these ventures that can generate revenue and deliver benefits here on Earth?”
“…The Indian team has visited the islands, surveyed the site and confirmed it is the right location and they are now working with an Australian project manager to set up the facilities,” Australian Space Agency (ASA) Enrico Palermo told TOI in an exclusive interview.
TOI was the first to report that Isro was exploring the Cocos Islands for its tracking station. Palermo called Gaganyaan an inspiring mission and said: “We are doing that [tracking station] “Through an implementation arrangement from a government-to-government perspective and the reason India chose the islands is that if you look at the trajectory of the Gaganyaan flights, it is the optimum place for tracking telemetry and control,” he said.
He said he and his team would discuss further collaborations with Isro this week on the human spaceflight program and that the tracking station was just the first part. “We are also working on supporting India with scenarios where you could have contingency scenarios. So again, if you look at the trajectory of the spacecraft, if there are aborts and the crew needs to be recovered, that will be in Australian waters,” Palermo said.
He said that ASA made sure that it was there to support India, if there were any unforeseen circumstances in that matter. From that point on, ASA is exploring with India how we can contribute to Gaganyaan as a partner in science, partner in industry.
“Australia can bring expertise in applied space medicine, life sciences. If you look at our work that we do in Antarctica or remote medicine in Australia, that is very transferable to human spaceflight. As ambitions for robotic exploration grow, how do we bring in Australian robotics and autonomy experience? Other areas could be optical communications,” he said.
Joint satellites
In addition, the island continent is funding partnerships between Australian and Indian companies, three of which are in advanced stages of realisation.
The missions are: the AU$5.8 million LatConnect60 satellite to monitor carbon emissions, the AU$8.5 million Space Machines Company and Bengaluru-based Digantara Space MAITRI mission (Mission for Australia-India’s Technology, Research, and Innovation), to demonstrate space transportation and reduce space debris, and a AU$3.7 million project by Skykraft to develop a novel positioning, navigation and timing system for satellite constellations.
“We will see at least two of those satellites launched from India as part of the deal. So a special SSLV launch for Space Machines with NSIL and then we will see the launch of the LatConnect 60 satellite with Skyroot, one of the upcoming launch startups here in India,” Palermo said.
Quad, climate and more
He pointed out that ASA and Isro are working together on a number of initiatives under the Quad Space Working Group. These include looking at how to address extreme precipitation, a proposal led by India, which is becoming more frequent due to climate change.
“…As part of last year’s G20 celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the G20 Climate Satellite and Australia is exploring how we can contribute a payload to that satellite in various Earth observation technologies,” he said.
He stated that the commercial space ecosystem in India and Australia is similar to a majority of small to medium enterprises and startups looking to scale. He said, “…how can we learn from each other and scale these ventures that can generate revenue and deliver benefits here on Earth?”
