ISRO has been a major source of inspiration for entrepreneurs to finally have a little space on the space of their own and get a little closer to the mysteries that lies beyond. Here, we have the ‘space entrepreneurs’ talking about how they ventured into space, what they think about their mentor ‘ISRO’ and home ‘Indian aerospace industry’.

India’s GSLV MkIII-M1, successfully launched the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into an Earth’s orbit on July 22, 2019. This ‘Bahubali’ moment India awaited since almost a decade; a source of inspiration to all the eyes, physical and digital.

The stars, the skies, the Sun, the moon and what lies beyond them has always caught the eye. When the whole world was wondering what lies in the sky, few people have succeeded in reaching the sky; they found openings in space. A new wave of space technology startups is skyrocketing in India, catching the world’s eye, keen to join the space race.

Startups of the space

Manufacturing for the aerospace sector is a difficult task for various reasons. Some of the said complexities are capital intensive and require extensive technical equipment and facilities for prolonged gestation. Few of the start-ups have been dedicatedly catering to the demands of the aerospace manufacturing.

Astrome Technologies – Dr. Prasad H L Bhat, Chairman and CTO

When we started Astrome, my colleague Neha and I, were firm on making profound use of space technology to uplift the life in emerging nations. On understanding the delinquencies, we realised that there’s a dire requirement of high speed internet infrastructure. Particularly in developing countries, because when the concerns will be resorted from space, it would profoundly thrive the economies of rural and semi-urban geographies.

We recognised that the state-of-the-art technology would not be able to serve the internet demands affordably, so we began working on one that could. This effort resulted in our patented millimetre-wave wireless communication technology. Astrome will use this core technology to power its satellite transponders, making them at least 8 times higher in capacity than the state-of-the-art technology. The SpaceNet constellation is designed such that it achieves a total network capacity of 24Tbps with just 198 satellites, lowering the infrastructure cost per Gbps to a 1/8th of other upcoming satellite constellations such as OneWeb, SpaceX, Telesat, etc. This is our USP.

Manastu Space – Ashtesh Kumar, Co-founder, CTO and Tushar Jadhav, Co-founder, CEO

We were finishing final integration of our satellite on to the Indian rocket PSLV, when during a discussion, the staff, there, mentioned how people have lost their lives while handling highly toxic and carcinogenic fuel hydrazine for the satellite. They were not astronauts who had glorious deaths. It became clear to us that if the world got to realise the full potential of the space, it has to be in a safe and sustainable way; for that we decided to create the world’s safest satellite fuel and propulsion system.

One day every problem on the earth will be solved using space, directly, indirectly or by spin-offs. We dream of providing access to quality education and health care services to all. No one should die because of lack of information. Space might just be the way to realise this dream. This is not possible without low cost and sustainable access to space. So, we develop technologies to achieve this dream. We envision to democratise the space for every purse and person with a mission to make access to space cheaper and safer.

Skyroot Aerospace – Pawan Kumar Chandana, Founder, CEO and Bharath Daka, Co-founder, COO

Skyroot is building India’s first private space launch vehicle and as founders we were part of this sector before. Hence, we know there is a gap in supply, and therefore a great opportunity too owing to increase in demand for space-based services. Our start-up is different because we were founded by former ISRO scientists, have a team with strong domain expertise, and also, we do not operate on conventional rules resulting in accelerated progress. Indian aerospace ecosystem is mostly subsystem suppliers and lacks OEM’s building world class products. We believe aerospace sector has the potential to be on the likes of IT revolution in India in the years to come.

Xovian – Raghav Sharma, Founder

Well, we started this during our college days in 2012-13. During that time, my 1st publication of research paper on rocket propulsion made me create an online platform for aerospace innovation. Later on, we formed our venture Xovian in 2015 with a vision to provide sustainable solutions in satellite technologies. Currently, we are working on innovative remote sensing technology which can cut down the cost of factor by 100 compared to the current remote sensing technologies. This is one such thing that distinguishes us from the other start-ups.

ISRO’s role in propelling the growth of Indian aerospace industry

The aerospace industry in India has grown significantly in the last 5 years. This has been, in large, possible, thanks to ISRO. The organisation’s technology transfer program and private industry contract program have helped new private players evolve in the industry. The aerospace industry also has a heavy dependency on other industries like manufacturing and electronics industries. ISRO has shown cognizance of this with their methodical interaction with those industries and development of their capabilities. Bhat, speaking about Astrome’s focus on internet delivery from space, has distinguished ISRO scientists like Dr P S Goel, Dr. B N Suresh as their key advisors. He further adds, “ISRO is responsible for some key leaps in India’s space technology, including the launch of Chandrayaan-II, and the work-horse standard launcher of PSLV.”

Kumar views ISRO’s push as highly captivating, and says, “ISRO realised the importance of Make in India very early and for this ISRO has a list of certified vendors for material manufacturing for systems and sub-systems. There are also various technologies, developed by ISRO that are applicable for the mass and commercial manufacturers like lithium battery technology, Tata Chemicals, BEL among others.” Whereas, Jadhav elaborates that the main job of ISRO is to research. With lack of maturity of Indian industry, development and servicing had to be done by ISRO. Only ISRO can do so much with the given resources and time constraints, but with the help of industry.

ISRO has created a great supply chain of skilled and quality conscious manufacturers. This makes it easier for OEM’s to utilise the ecosystem which was built for decades through hand holding by ISRO. Supporting ISRO’s initiatives and achievements, Chandana said, “A lot of ISRO’s production is going to be outsourced in the coming years, helping new firms to enter the industry and empower the exiting players even more. However, outsourcing of turnkey projects is lacking and hopefully will increase soon, empowering new and innovative firms to enter and establish themselves in the industry.”

According to Sharma, with a high demand, ISRO has realised the importance of active participation from Indian industries. Recently, a consortium of companies led by Alpha Design Technologies have been given up contract to develop the entire satellite privately. This way by involving more and more private companies ISRO is fueling up the space ecosystem with much reliance on the domestic industries and in long run will set a solid foundation of a proven supply chain.”

Ensuring product integrity in the aerospace industry

Safeguarding a product’s integrity is highly essential, especially in aerospace industry. Daka says, “Matured engineering and quality assurance thought process, is the Holy Grail to ensure product integrity in the aerospace industry. He further adds, “As the cost and lead time to manufacture and test aerospace products is high, it is imperative to follow a streamlined process in both design and testing and also ensure no corners are cut in the process. However, this should not lead to unnecessary delay at times when things get stuck, where matured engineering judgment to move forward in the right direction with calculated risk plays a very important role.”

In Bhat’s view, in order to ensure product integrity, several international standards are present defining various non-destructive and destructive tests for verification of product. ISRO has set good grounds in this matter for us to follow be it for mechanical or thermal or electrical or radiation or for core performance itself.

Kumar views the product development in the aerospace industry, as very complex and interlinking process. He elaborates it by saying “The main reason for that is the cost of small mistake, means loss of complete mission. In space, you don’t get a second chance to repair the satellite. For the integrity of the product and of the whole mission, following ever step is very important.” Jadhav, says “It’s imperative to have a clear plan and a fair clarity to the mission you are working for. For attaining the same, one must have a right attitude, had should have an eye to understand and have a grasp of the detailed designing, testing, conducting an in-depth review and again testing the reviews. Moreover, perform an extensive testing in the environment that stimulates the actual environment (space).”

Describing space as an entity for global good, Sharma feels that in today’s world, it is more as a “space is business”; every other organisation is looking to get a competitive advantage of it. However, he says, “There lies an issue, a pending space activity bill.” The bill which was drafted to strengthen the space ecosystem is stuck in the parliament. According to him, there is no clear cut definition from where space starts because the laws which govern the intellectual property on the earthly (which includes aeronautical/avionics) companies are not clear with the aerospace business. So, we follow the same methodology of intellectual property which other companies follow, he says.

Is India, a self-reliant aviation industry?

India’s industry is rapidly developing and will likely soon match and possibly exceed the performance and technology of the industries in other air and space faring nations. So, India can achieve a self-reliant aviation industry over time with deliberate planning and effort.

Chandana strongly feels that India is already self-reliant in space industry and has indigenous capabilities in building all classes of satellites and launch vehicles. However, the number of people working in the space industry is extremely low compared to China, Europe and USA.

However, Bhat thinks that the aerospace industry has heavy inter-dependencies across nations and this is an inherent feature of the industry. Even completely ‘self-reliant’ nations like China are forced to work with the international private and public community.” It may better serve India’s interests to develop key technologies in a constructive integration with the international aerospace industry. This will help India consolidate its position in the international community. The self-reliance will come as a by-product of this as space technology evolves into the next generation of private industry led growth,” he says

Whereas, Kumar is of a diverse opinion. He says, “With the current efforts and policies, India can never be self-reliant, for that matter no one country can be completely self-reliant in aviation industry. US manufacturers can manufacture ‘n’ number of airplane parts including engines, frames, avionics etc. But still they have to rely on Middle East for fuel.” Jadhav, on the other hand, feels that, while talking about India, apart from ground maintenance and some spare parts, we are dependent on other countries for almost everything including fuel, software, frames etc. As per the current technologies, policies and interest, we don’t see that changing.

Being optimistic, Sharma feels that this would be too early to make a judgment on it because with the current amendments in FDI norms, many foreign companies have shown up their presence here. But it all depends how these 5 years of governance take the companies around. The biggest challenge for the smooth conduct of business is the presence of a stable government and India being very fragile when we narrow down the governance from centre to state to local. Although, the current jump in ease of doing business has given up a strong indication for a stronger business ecosystem but much is still to be done for next 10 years. Space/avionic industry being government driven needs a dedicated governance to nurture in order to reap the benefits in future.”

“Our aim is to create a sustainable environment where, every problem on the earth will be solved using space directly, indirectly or by spin-offs.”

Tushar Jadhav, Founder, Manastu Space

“There’s a dire requirement of high speed internet infrastructure that can be addressed by space technologies”.

Dr Prasad H L Bhat, Astrome Technologies Pvt. Ltd

“We believe aerospace sector has the potential to be on the likes of IT revolution in India in the years to come.”

Bharath Daka, Co-founder, COO, Skyroot Aerospace Pvt.Ltd

“With the current efforts and policies India can never be self-reliant for that matter no one country can be completely self-reliant in aviation industry.”

Ashtesh Kumar, Founder, Manastu Space

“We are working on innovative remote sensing technology which can cut down the cost of factor by 100 compared to the current remote sensing technologies”

Raghav Sharma, Founder, Xovian

“Skyroot are building India’s first private space launch vehicles and we know there is a gap that exists and therefore great opportunity due to increase in demand for space-based services.”

Pawan Kumar Chandana, Founder, CEO, Skyroot Aerospace Pvt. Ltd