India's Space Programmes: A Model of Cost-Effectiveness and Innovation

Former ISRO Chairman S. Somanath highlighted India’s cost-efficiency in space missions, achieving results at one-fifth the U.S. cost. Speaking on the NASA-ISRO NISAR mission, he praised India’s innovative approaches like simulation focus, hardware recycling, and leveraging low-cost, high-end manufacturing. Despite higher material costs, India offsets expenses through ingenuity and efficient design. Somanath emphasized private sector participation to boost India’s global space economy share from 2% to 10%. His vision promotes collaboration and innovation, positioning India as a leader in affordable space exploration.

Former ISRO Chairman S. Somanath has shed light on the remarkable cost-efficiency of India's space initiatives, emphasizing how the nation achieves the same satellite missions at just one-fifth the expenditure incurred by the United States. Speaking about the upcoming NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, Somanath highlighted India's innovative approach to reducing costs while maintaining high-quality outcomes.

The NISAR mission, a collaborative project between NASA and ISRO, aims to map the entire planet to better understand changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice masses, vegetation biomass, sea levels, groundwater, and natural hazards. Discussing the mission, Somanath explained that while one segment of the payload is being developed by the U.S., the main satellite bus is being built in India, and the launch will also be carried out by India. "If India has spent x amount of money for this satellite mission, the money spent by the U.S. is five times x," Somanath remarked. "I don't know what is happening in the USA, really. I know I can do it at x cost."

Speaking at the Ahmedabad Management Association's interactive session titled "India Tomorrow: Unlocking Industry, Innovation, Talent," Somanath shared insights into India's cost-effective space missions. He attributed the reduced costs to India's focus on simulation over extensive hardware testing, recycling of components, and leveraging the country's manufacturing sector, which provides high-end capabilities at competitive prices. Despite higher costs for materials like aluminum (imported from Europe) and electronic chips (sourced internationally), India's ingenuity in system design and peripheral components offsets these expenses.

"The whole magic is in terms of various components that are actually peripherally available to build the system," Somanath explained. Reflecting on his tenure at ISRO, he stated that the organization consistently seeks frugal yet effective approaches to project development. "Our approach is always to bring down development costs. You can give more trust on simulations and analysis and less on actual hardware testing. You can also recycle hardware. The principle we follow at ISRO is to reuse everything to recover the cost," he noted.

Somanath also praised India's manufacturing sector for its significant role in enabling cost-effective space missions. "Finally, India is the best place to do high-end manufacturing at a substantially low cost," he said. However, he acknowledged that India's investment in the space sector remains modest and called for greater private sector participation to elevate the nation's share in the global space economy from the current 2% to 10%.

He urged a paradigm shift in viewing the space sector as a business opportunity rather than a government-exclusive domain. "One of the important elements of the vision is the participation of private entrepreneurs in the space sector in a big way, which we have not done," he said. "This idea has to be removed, and we have done this in the last two years. We made a very open and public message that it is for private industries to participate in the space sector and find a business case."

Somanath suggested that government investment should focus on areas where private industries face challenges, such as space exploration and building space stations. Over time, public-funded technological advancements could transition to private enterprises when commercial viability emerges. "This transition has to happen in five years. Then our contribution to the space economy will grow from hardly 2 per cent in the global economy to 10 per cent in the global economy," he emphasized.

Under Somanath's leadership, ISRO achieved significant milestones, including the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission in 2023. His vision for India's space sector underscores the potential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth, making it a global leader in cost-effective space exploration and technology.