U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was welcomed warmly in India on
what may well be her final trip there as a senior U.S. government
official. From a space perspective, assuming a more productive outcome
was somehow achievable, this trip never reached its intended orbit. It
never even came close.
For example, in her lengthy column in The Pioneer - "India-US display
space blindness" - Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a senior fellow
at the Observer Research Foundation, made her unhappiness about this
lost opportunity in this instance quite clear.
She lamented that no clear goal, no bilateral funding, and certainly,
no new public-private partnerships were forged. She identified several
"cutting edge areas" where cooperation could occur including "space
access, in-space maneuver, space logistics, space infrastructure, etc."
Any chance for job creation was lost in the process, she said.
And she concluded as well that what is needed is, "another big idea to
steer the relationship and take it to the next level." Space
cooperation never surfaced as a viable option, however.
See
http://www.dailypioneer.com/355193/India-US-display-space-blindness.html
A U.S. Department of State fact sheet entitled, "U.S.-India Science,
Technology and Innovation Cooperation" tried to put a positive spin on
the situation.
See-
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/07/168740.htm
"Space"
"Indian Space Research Organization: The United States and India are
committed to building closer ties in space exploration, space science
and earth observation. Both countries are dedicated to using their
space programs to expand the frontiers of scientific knowledge and
produce tangible benefits for their populations. The removal of Indian
Space Research Organization (ISRO) and subordinate agencies from the
Entities List in February 2011 marked a significant step in eliminating
remaining barriers to greater cooperation in space exploration and
research.
"Civil Space Working Group: By exchanging and utilizing satellite-based
scientific data about the Earth, its climate, weather, and geophysical
features, the United States and India are working together to share
information on tropical weather, monsoon forecasting and climate
change. At the July 13-14 Civil Space Working Group, the two countries
took steps towards their cooperation in this area by concluding
substantive discussion on Oceansat-II and Megha-Tropiques missions,
which will help the countries refine scientific models and improve
understanding of global weather patterns."
The India-US joint statement issued in New Delhi on July 19 mentioned
the session held by the US – India Joint Space Working Group on Civil
Space Cooperation in Bangalore.
"Building on the successful Chandrayan-1 lunar mission, NASA and ISRO
reviewed potential areas for future cooperation in earth observation,
space exploration, space sciences and satellite navigation. Both sides
agreed for early finalization three new implementing arrangements for
sharing satellite data on oceans and global weather patterns.
Recognising the research opportunities available on the International
Space Station, both sides agreed to explore the possibilities of joint
experiments. NASA reiterated its willingness to discuss potential
cooperation with ISRO on human spaceflight activities. The two sides
also agreed to expand upon previous work in the area of global
navigation satellite systems (GNSS) with the goal of promoting
compatibility and interoperability between the US Global Positioning
System, India’s Navigation systems, and those of other countries."
Keep in mind that during her speech at the Anna Centenary Library in
Chennai, Sec. Clinton knew full well that here reference to "deepening
our defense cooperation" could soon swing the door wide open as far as
the U.S. space connection to India's Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) is concerned, although someone has to unlock the
door first.
Was it merely a coincidence that at the start of the very same day,
India elected to test-fire one of its newest shorter range, tactical
missiles known as the `Prahaar', and that Defence Minister AK Antony
sent his congratulations to the DRDO before Sec. Clinton stepped to the
podium? Perhaps.
Otherwise, the overall timing of this trip was simply not right for any
major announcements regarding U.S. - Indian space relations.
Was it because the ASEAN Regional Forum was looming? No, the U.S. and China were both navigating carefully already anyway, and aside from a few rhetorical salvos, no U.S. attempt to bolster India's standing in space would have proven too disruptive to those talks.
What about Sec. Clinton's mention of the inauguration of a trilateral
U.S.-India-Japan dialogue in Chennai? Sure, this could yield profound
consequences in space, but here again, the realities of the Indian
nuclear deals represent an enormous counterweight.
In the end, no pressing foreign policy concerns along with the latest U.S. attempts to outmaneuver the Chinese at sea are are not what probably
caused the Obama administration to ease back on the throttle here.
India's nuclear sector was not the determining factor either.
In fact, Indian commentators generally overlooked the state of disarray
permeating the U.S. space sector as a whole. As thousands of U.S.
space workers at NASA and major space contractors were being handed pink
slips, President Obama in his quest for a second term no doubt did not
think it to be a wise idea to be seen as someone who was crafting an aggressive space partnering campaign with India - placing even more American jobs in jeopardy. One might argue that so what given that President Obama has no supporters left in the U.S, space sector today, but that is simply not true.
So, did domestic political considerations shape the relatively sparse menu of space offerings in this instance? This cannot be dismissed altogether.
On the other hand, India might want to weigh the possible repercussions of what NASA was undertaking on the ISS as well. One of the best American commentators active in the "New Space" sector issued a cautionary note this past week, something that readers and space planners in
India and elsewhere simply cannot ignore.
In his latest newsletter, Charles Lurio included a section on,
"Refueling Experiment and Issues of Commercialization"
See
http: www.thelurioreport.com
Lurio outlined how the “Robotic Refueling Mission” (RRM) which was
carried aloft by the last Shuttle flight earlier this month includes an
“activity board” designed for use by the Canadian-built “Dextre”
robotic system which is already aboard the ISS.
See -
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/
RRM.html.
Lurio proceeds to highlight the RRM's testing of technology and
procedures required for refueling, “even [of] satellites not designed
to be serviced.”
So on top of everything else, as India emphasizes its heavy rockets,
and lays the groundwork for Indian launchers to be adorned with
countless new large payloads, NASA stands ready to extend the life of
the entire space infrastructure not just GEOs - we are only talking
about roughly 290 GEO satellites on station today - and restructuring
the entire satellite food chain in the process.
Sorry, but what went on during this trip - that is the last Shuttle
mission to the ISS with the RRM aboard - might end up exerting far more
influence on the Indian space sector in the years to come than Sec.
Clinton's final mission to India.
India's solution in the face of these and other variables could be to
react accordingly - forego partnerships promised but not secured while
innovating like crazy - adapting again to a new set of challenges.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Team Indus is moving to center stage
Thanks to a status report prepared on July 21 by Rahul Narayan,
Team Lead & Mission Crew at Team Indus, fans of Team Indus which is India's lone entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition have a much better idea as to what is happening this summer.
The entire report can be seen here -
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/indus/blog/team-indus
-2011-q2-summary/
Dilip Chabria, Founding member & Marketing lead, was kind enough to answer a few of my quick follow up questions.
"With Rover design considerations completed, we will send our Rover prototype
for expert review once it passes internal testing - other than any glaring
omissions pointed out by the review panel, we do not expect major structural
changes to the Rover," said Chabria. "The software part of the Rover, which includes AutoNav capabilities will however continue to evolve as we go along. Once the first
prototype version is reviewed we will begin the second prototype immediately
thereafter."
"The key challenge with Rovers will always be testing in regolith simulated
terrains - there are excellent facilities with NASA, Team Indus may not go
that far for testing though. ISRO is developing a limited capability lunar
terrain, which we would like to get access to later this year," he added.
He confirmed that, "there are no other Indian teams on the final GLXP roster. Individuals of
Indian origin are part of other teams, including Naveen Jain, founder of
MoonExpress."
The X Prize Foundation "has done a reasonable job with the publicity of the
competition - news of GLXP has been on the internet for over 3 years and
people in the right circles - government, defence agencies included were in
the know." Otherwise, Chabria did not comment when asked whether he was surprised that no other teams from India were competing.
As for the progress being made by the other 28 GLXP teams?
"While we attempt to follow all teams' blogs, for rankings we simply go by
Mike's scorecard (http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eevadot%2Ecom%2Fglxpscorecard%29
Goes without saying, Astrobotic is the leader of the pack, MoonEx is the
newest challenger, and there are at least 5-6 other serious contenders that
we follow closely," he said.
And when does he think the first GLXP rover will actually land on the Moon and
why at this date?
"In our opinion, there is a 50%-50% chance of the first GLXP team's attempt to
be last quarter 2013 or first quarter 2014. Specific dates will probably be
dictated by launch manifests of individual providers as well as possible
local, national sentiment, so if we had to launch first quarter 2014 given
the option we will probably go for our Republic day - 26th January - as the launch
or landing dates," said Chabria.
Because at least one other GLXP team based in the Netherlands known as Team White Label Space which has its rover under development in Japan, for example, has talked openly about pursuing a possible Indian launch option, we asked Chabria if he was confident that Team Indus will use an Indian launch vehicle, and if Team Indus enjoyed a priority status in terms of this same launch vehicle.
"ISRO's PSLV is an extremely reliable launch service provider, given the
respite we get in the paperwork, logistics costs, insurance considerations
and more - for Team Indus PSLV is the only launch option we are considering," he said.
"We have modified our mission plan to adapt to PSLV's launch characteristics.
Team Indus is a for-Profit company, therefore I doubt we will get too many
discounts from ISRO, however being an Indian company we should get easier,
faster audience at ISRO."
Clearly, Team Indus is moving to center stage, so look for the rollout of the team's rover prototype late next month.
Team Lead & Mission Crew at Team Indus, fans of Team Indus which is India's lone entrant in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition have a much better idea as to what is happening this summer.
The entire report can be seen here -
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/indus/blog/team-indus
-2011-q2-summary/
Dilip Chabria, Founding member & Marketing lead, was kind enough to answer a few of my quick follow up questions.
"With Rover design considerations completed, we will send our Rover prototype
for expert review once it passes internal testing - other than any glaring
omissions pointed out by the review panel, we do not expect major structural
changes to the Rover," said Chabria. "The software part of the Rover, which includes AutoNav capabilities will however continue to evolve as we go along. Once the first
prototype version is reviewed we will begin the second prototype immediately
thereafter."
"The key challenge with Rovers will always be testing in regolith simulated
terrains - there are excellent facilities with NASA, Team Indus may not go
that far for testing though. ISRO is developing a limited capability lunar
terrain, which we would like to get access to later this year," he added.
He confirmed that, "there are no other Indian teams on the final GLXP roster. Individuals of
Indian origin are part of other teams, including Naveen Jain, founder of
MoonExpress."
The X Prize Foundation "has done a reasonable job with the publicity of the
competition - news of GLXP has been on the internet for over 3 years and
people in the right circles - government, defence agencies included were in
the know." Otherwise, Chabria did not comment when asked whether he was surprised that no other teams from India were competing.
As for the progress being made by the other 28 GLXP teams?
"While we attempt to follow all teams' blogs, for rankings we simply go by
Mike's scorecard (http://www.mail2web.com/cgi-bin/redir.asp?lid=0&newsite=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eevadot%2Ecom%2Fglxpscorecard%29
Goes without saying, Astrobotic is the leader of the pack, MoonEx is the
newest challenger, and there are at least 5-6 other serious contenders that
we follow closely," he said.
And when does he think the first GLXP rover will actually land on the Moon and
why at this date?
"In our opinion, there is a 50%-50% chance of the first GLXP team's attempt to
be last quarter 2013 or first quarter 2014. Specific dates will probably be
dictated by launch manifests of individual providers as well as possible
local, national sentiment, so if we had to launch first quarter 2014 given
the option we will probably go for our Republic day - 26th January - as the launch
or landing dates," said Chabria.
Because at least one other GLXP team based in the Netherlands known as Team White Label Space which has its rover under development in Japan, for example, has talked openly about pursuing a possible Indian launch option, we asked Chabria if he was confident that Team Indus will use an Indian launch vehicle, and if Team Indus enjoyed a priority status in terms of this same launch vehicle.
"ISRO's PSLV is an extremely reliable launch service provider, given the
respite we get in the paperwork, logistics costs, insurance considerations
and more - for Team Indus PSLV is the only launch option we are considering," he said.
"We have modified our mission plan to adapt to PSLV's launch characteristics.
Team Indus is a for-Profit company, therefore I doubt we will get too many
discounts from ISRO, however being an Indian company we should get easier,
faster audience at ISRO."
Clearly, Team Indus is moving to center stage, so look for the rollout of the team's rover prototype late next month.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Soaring over SHAR
SHAR aka Sriharikota is an island off the east coast of India on the Bay of Bengal that is the site of the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) thriving launch facility known as the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC - SHAR). Never been there myself, but it must be an exotic spot. It has been an exceptionally active launch site over the years, and yet, it is not well known here in the U.S.
Why focus on activities at SDSC - SHAR instead of those unfolding at Baikonur, Kourou or the new launch site under construction by the Chinese on Hainan Island? Or even Alcantera which is the rarely used Brazilian launch center? Simply put, SHAR is different and "Soaring over SHAR" hopes to capture some of the spirit and energy that is so pervasive throughout the Indian space sector. In mid-2011, ISRO may be anxious to set sail on calmer waters after a few unwanted setbacks over the past few months. Still, every space program has experienced setbacks along the way, and the sun will be shining down on SHAR shortly. You can count on it.
Why focus on activities at SDSC - SHAR instead of those unfolding at Baikonur, Kourou or the new launch site under construction by the Chinese on Hainan Island? Or even Alcantera which is the rarely used Brazilian launch center? Simply put, SHAR is different and "Soaring over SHAR" hopes to capture some of the spirit and energy that is so pervasive throughout the Indian space sector. In mid-2011, ISRO may be anxious to set sail on calmer waters after a few unwanted setbacks over the past few months. Still, every space program has experienced setbacks along the way, and the sun will be shining down on SHAR shortly. You can count on it.
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