Chandrayaan 3

Take a look at this cartoon. On September 28, 2014, this cartoon was published in the New York Times which shows how an Indian farmer is trying to enter an exquisite space club with a cow. Inside the space club, two men are reading about India's Mars mission. The title of the article is "India's Budget Mission to Mars." Obviously, this cartoon received a lot of criticism. It tried to indicate that poor Indians were dreaming of space programs. Ultimately, the New York Times had to apologize. Abou

t a week ago, on July 4, 2023, the New York Times published an article about India's space program. But this time, the story was very different. "The surprising striver in the world's space business." When India achieved independence in 1947, our country was going through a lot of problems. At that time, thinking about a space program was a luxury. Many people wondered how India would be able to progress in such fields. This went on even after the formation of ISRO. It was as if India was like a

toddler in the world of space. Its budget was much smaller than that of Russia and the US. But today, India's space program has achieved a lot. ISRO has completed 166 missions. The private sector is also expanding. There are 140 registered space startups in India. This innovation is the reason why the plan is to "We'll launch the Gaganyaan carrying humans." 'We will be the fourth country in the world to send humans into space." And you must have seen in the news, how India is launching Chandray

aan-3. To understand the journey of this article from this cartoon, we need to understand the history of space exploration in India. Just like Indian space startups, we've also started using some innovative technologies in our videos. For example, improving our scripts using ChatGPT, cleaning audio files, or creating photos from Midjourney. Our teams are becoming more effective with AI tools like ChatGPT. And you can also learn to use such tools for free, with the help of Growth School. Growth S

chool is going to conduct a 3-hour paid workshop, which will be hosted by my friend Vaibhav. Although this workshop is paid, for thousand Soch viewers, this workshop is absolutely free. Yes, free! I saw this workshop myself, where I learned the nuances of AI prompting techniques. With such tools, you'll be able to automate many manual tasks, which will save you time. This workshop teaches you applied things. For example, how you can use AI to find jobs, how you can make videos and ads, and what

tasks you can automate for big businesses. So whether you're a working professional, freelancer, or a creator, you can learn from this workshop how you can bring ChatGPT and AI to your professional life. If not me, then listen to those who watch my videos and attended this workshop for free. So take advantage of this free offer. The link is in the description. The year is 1962. R. Aravamudan, who was a junior engineer at the Department of Atomic Energy in Mumbai, was talking to a colleague in a

canteen. His colleague told him that he'd heard about a scientist, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, who was setting up a rocket launch pad in South Kerala. And he was looking for volunteers. Both of them were unsure about this mission. They wondered if they should volunteer. It sounds weird, but we can't blame them because this is how the Indian space program began. It started in 1962, when Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru asked physicist Vikram Sarabhai to lead the Indian National Committee for Space

Research. But there was no organization at the time. R. Aravamudan says that the people who were making the launchpad were recruited without any proper recruitment process. There was no job interview. He says that the first recruits in India's space program were young, excited people like him. India didn't have a training program, so the people were sent to NASA for training. Vikram Sarabhai collaborated with NASA to develop India's space program. Under that arrangement, NASA supplied a rocket

to India. "So NASA sent the Sounding Rocket through this connection" "and collaboration with Dr. Sarabhai." It wasn't easy to build a launch station for a rocket. The first challenge for Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was to select a suitable site. And he chose this place for the launch station. It was a small church near a small fishing village in Kerala. The village was called Thumba. Vikram Sarabhai found that this place was located on Earth's magnetic equator. This meant that it was a good place to res

earch the cosmic rays of the Earth. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and his team, including India's President, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, went to see this site. They talked to the priest of the church to get the land and build a launch station. The preparations for the launch were in full swing. The launch of the same rocket that NASA had given India. But there was a problem. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's team had to take the rocket to the launch site. The small village didn't have vehicles and trucks to transport the ro

cket. So what did they do? They relied on Jugaad technology. "So when this Nike-Apache rocket came from NASA" "it was taken out of the container and then brought to the launch pad" "from the assembly bay by a bullock cart." "The payload we needed for this was not very large." "So we used a cycle." And finally, on 21st November 1963, the rocket was launched. This was the beginning of India's space journey. Around 6 years later, the responsibility of INSCOPAR was increased and it was rebranded int

o ISRO. After which ISRO hit many milestones. In 1975, India launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta, from a Soviet Union rocket. 5 years later, India launched its own satellite using its own launch vehicle. India became the 6th country in the world to launch its own satellite using its own vehicle. Eventually, India became the first country to reach the the orbit of Mars on its first try. We even set numerous records. But in spite of all this, on a global scale, India's contribution is still v

ery low. Take a look at this graph. It shows how many objects each country has sent to space in 2022. The US has sent about 5,500 objects. Russia and China have sent about 731 objects. India is in 7th place with 127 objects. In 2020, India's contribution to the space economy was only 2%. Despite ISRO's achievements, why is India's contribution so low? The answer is very simple. Private sector involvement. This is SpaceX's Starship mission, under which they want to go to Mars and potentially buil

d a human settlement there. SpaceX is a private space company in the US that launches its own rockets and satellites. For a long time, NASA has collaborated with private sector companies. Companies like Boeing have designed the components of the International Space Station. Since the early 1960s, the US had given permission to private companies to build communication satellites in addition to the components. After the 1990s, a large private sector industry has emerged that launches private and g

overnment satellites into space. With the permission of the private sector, a lot of innovation has taken place. For example, SpaceX is the first company in the world to be able to reuse the first stage of a rocket. Before SpaceX, the first stage fell into the ocean and couldn't be reused. But by reusing it, SpaceX has reduced the cost of launches. This means that private and government satellites can now go to space at a low price. This is a good thing for NASA. They don't have to worry about i

nnovating everything. If a private company innovates, they get a contract from NASA. This benefits NASA and the private sector company. This benefits the US government because NASA's share in the US budget has been declining for many years. The same is happening in Europe. A private company, Arianespace, now launches European satellites. These things need to happen in India as well because ISRO's space budget is very low. In 2022, India's space budget was $1.7 billion, China's budget was $14 bil

lion, and the US's was $30 billion. Thankfully, the Indian government has realized how much the private sector companies contribute. But even before 2020, Indian private companies were a part of India's space journey. This is Godrej's ad. The company was created in 1897 when it only sold locks. After that, Godrej started selling many consumer goods --mosquito repellents, hair dyes, refrigerators, and even soap. But you may not know that Godrej has been manufacturing many components for ISRO sinc

e the 1990s. In 1994, Godrej manufactured the Vikas engine, which has been used in many launch vehicles in India. Godrej has also supplied many critical components for the Chandrayaan missions. And Godrej is not the only company that has supplied parts to ISRO. Andhra Sugars is another company that has been associated with ISRO for many years. But at that time, these companies were not helping ISRO for money. Narayan Prasad, the COO of a space-related company, says that these businesses were hel

ping because they felt proud to contribute to India's space program. He says that at that time, they didn't get much money for this contribution. The founder of Anant Technologies, who has also partnered with ISRO, says that since the 1960s, around 500 private companies have supported ISRO. And ISRO has also helped these companies. He says that ISRO didn't just buy components from these companies, but trained their employees and helped them build facilities so that these companies can build good

components. But now, the investors who are investing in India's private sector space companies are not just investing for patriotism, but for profit as well. So it's important for us to understand what our private sector is planning next. We can divide the Indian private sector into two parts –Upstream and Downstream. The Upstream segment either builds satellites or launches them via its rockets. The Downstream segment builds a product or service via space data like climate monitoring, satellit

e communication, or defence. Before 2020, the government had a lot of control over both segments. Either the private industry supplied some parts and components to manufacture ISRO's equipment or the government provided services via infrastructure in the Downstream segment. But now, the private sector doesn't face roadblocks. It can build its own satellites and launch them into space. And it can also provide services via government or private sector data. Let's talk about this company. This is S

anjay Nikkanti, the co-founder of Dhruva Space. He got interested in satellites when he was in college. Many students like him were excited when India's Chandrayaan-1 mission was successful. Seeing this excitement, ISRO decided to give these students a chance. They said that if the students build their own satellites, they would send some of the satellites into orbit for free. Sanjay Nikkanti tried to do the same with the help of his SRM University. His satellite, SRM-SAT, was designed to solve

the pollution problem of our country by monitoring carbon dioxide and water vapour in the atmosphere. His satellite was successfully launched in October 2011. After that, he started thinking that ISRO was the only company in the country that was building satellites. So, he started a company called Dhruva Space with his college friends. A company that manufactures satellites. At that time, it was very difficult to get funding for such companies. The market was so bad that a few years later, he wa

s planning to sell their company. But after 2020, things changed. Many investors invested in Dhruva Space. It launched its two satellites, Thybolt 1 and Thybolt 2. Dhruva Space now provides end-to-end services to many downstream companies. If offers to build, launch, track, and maintain their satellites. Many Indian upstream startups are trying to solve a huge problem. This is called space debris. It's part of a machine that humans have left in space. Sometimes, it can be a damaged satellite or

its parts. When some parts fall on the earth, other parts can orbit the Earth for thousands of years. This is a threat to other satellites. Because the speed of these parts is so high that they can not only damage but destroy active satellites. In 2021, a Chinese satellite broke down when it collided with a small piece of debris. A Bangalore-based aerospace company, Digantra, is trying to solve this problem. Space agencies do monitor this debris from Earth. There are many small pieces that are d

ifficult to track. These pieces are less than 1 cm in size and can range up to 13 crores in number. Digantra wants to launch 40 satellites and track these small pieces. You can imagine that it's not easy to manufacture such things. And a lot of funding is needed for this. That's why in India, 66% of companies are working in the downstream segment, not the upstream segment. For example, BITS Pilani graduates' startup, Pixxel. This is Google Earth. And many people consider it revolutionary. Becaus

e if you zoom in, you can see your own home. But Google Earth has a limitation. You can only see photos of the Earth. And this is a problem that BITS Pilani's college students, Awais Ahmed, wanted to solve. He realized that today's commercial satellites don't provide so much detail. They can only provide photos. If you want to know the chlorophyll content of leaves or soil nutrition, these satellites can't do that. So Awais came up with a solution. Satellites with hyperspectral imaging. You migh

t ask, what is hyperspectral imaging? Our eyes can see visible light in 3 bands. Red, green, and blue. But hyperspectral imaging can see multiple bands. Because of this, it can identify features that our eyes or commercial cameras can't. It's like creating an MRI scan of the world with hyperspectral imaging. Pollution and diseases can all be identified. You can imagine the benefits of this to agriculture. You can find out where the crops are good and where the problems are. This is what Awais an

d his college friend, Kshitij Khandelwal want to solve. They made their startup, PIXXEL, with BITS Pilani. Their first satellite was Shakuntala. They launched it with the help of SpaceX. Their objective is not to launch just one satellite. They want to launch multiple satellites. Ultimately, they want to build a constellation around the Earth, which can cover every point of the Earth in 2 days. But this wasn't easy for Awais and Kshitij. Awais said, everyone was interested in their idea but no o

ne wanted to pay. Thankfully, this changed. Not just for PIXXEL, but for other space startups too. In 2022, $119 million, i.e. around Rs. 990 crore, was invested in India's space startups. There are 140 registered startups in India. Blue Sky Analytics is another downstream company that uses satellites to create environmental data about floods or power plant emissions. Many people are optimistic about India's space sector based on these innovations. This is par with the current times. There are m

any external factors behind this confidence. This satellite is manufactured by OneWeb. It was launched in 2020 with a Russian rocket. This company wants to send 650 satellites into space for broadband connectivity. In March 2022, when this company wanted to send 36 more satellites, the Russian Space Agency refused to launch them because this company had received funding from the UK government. So when Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian Space Agency said that it wanted to reduce the use of its S

oyuz rockets. The Russian Space Agency placed two conditions in front of OneWeb. The UK government would have to sell its investment in the company and OneWeb would have to guarantee that its satellites wouldn't be used against Russia for military purposes. OneWeb couldn't meet these conditions and incurred a loss of ₹1800 crore. But this benefited India. After Russia's refusal, OneWeb approached ISRO so that ISRO could launch its satellites in space. This shows us that India can benefit from to

day's geopolitical environment. For years, Russia and China were the only two countries that were providing launch services to several satellite companies at a low cost. But Brian Weeden, the director of the Space Foundation, says that the perception of Russians has changed a lot after the Ukraine war. Many Western companies don't even want to use Chinese agencies. This will benefit India. The US government will grant permission to any American company to launch its satellite from India and not

from China. Especially if the satellite has military-related technology. This is because ISRO has been collaborating with private sector companies for a long time. There have been public-private sector partnerships for the past 40 years. More than 400 private companies have started in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. And for the past 40 years, ISRO has been making specialized parts. With such a collaborative approach, India's space ecosystem can grow. This is why we're seeing such art

icles in the New York Times. But this doesn't mean that Indian companies won't face a challenge. SpaceX is a big challenge. If we talk about the business of launching satellites, because SpaceX has started reusing rockets, heavy objects have become cheaper to send into space. But the advantage is that some Indian startups can offer customization to several companies. For example, Skyroute is a company that launches satellites. The company's CEO says they're like a taxi that launches handle small

er launches. Whereas SpaceX is like a bus or a train that delivers passengers from one destination to another. Startups like Agnikul are using 3D printers to reduce the cost of manufacturing rockets. There was a time when ISRO used bullock-cart to transport rockets. Today, Indian companies can become leaders in the space economy. If you liked this video, you'll like this video as well. In the video, we talk about the other aspects of startups --why many Indian startups are facing a lot of challe

nges? So do watch this video. And how can you use AI and ChatGPT to become productive in your career? There's a free workshop for that for the first 1000 users. The link is in the description.