ISRO’s expanding horizon is exciting

After the Chandrayaan-3 mission created history by landing a lander-rover near the moon’s south polar region, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) started the new year with a foray into a new realm of space endeavours.

The PSLV-C58 rocket, which carried 11 satellites, deployed the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) into orbit on Monday. XpoSat is the country’s first space observatory and the second in the world, after NASA’s IXPE, to study the polarisation of cosmic X-rays. It will open the windows to a field which has not till now been technologically explored by India. The mission could help scientists to look for emissions from black holes, neutron stars and similar objects. These studies are not possible from the earth as the cosmic rays are absorbed by the atmosphere. It is the country’s third space-based observatory after the launch of the solar mission, Aditya-L1, and AstroSat, launched in 2015.

The mission again confirms India’s position as a major space power, along with the US, China and Russia. XpoSat is in some respects an improvement on the NASA’s IXPE, which was launched in December 2021. Its expected life-span is five years while IXPE has a shorter working life. As in the case of all ISRO projects, it is much cheaper, too. The XPoSat mission has cost only $30 million as against the $188-million IXPE mission. Apart from XPoSat, the PSLV flight also successfully released 10 other payloads intended to do various studies and investigations, such as measuring ultraviolet radiation and demonstration of micro-satellite subsystems. These payloads were developed by various agencies like start-ups, educational institutions and ISRO centres. They are expected to aid and promote research and development efforts of private institutions also. Some of the payloads are for use in ISRO’s own future projects. 

The Indian space agency has diversified its operations and has entered new areas for study. Alongside the development and demonstration of its launch capabilities, much of ISRO’s work until the late 1990s had developmental objectives in areas like meteorology, agriculture and resource exploration. It has since the Chandrayaan-1 mission of 2008 moved into areas like exploration of space and heavenly bodies like the sun, the moon and the planets. The movement towards science research is in order and has expanded the scope of the agency. It is also a natural progression from demonstration of engineering capabilities to building capabilities in science research. Science and engineering have been mutually dependent and have promoted each other. But at this stage of the country’s development, there is the need to pay greater attention to science research.

Exploration of outer space and the universe and investigation of cosmic objects and phenomena will take the country’s scientific research and investigations to a different level. That, in turn, will stretch goals for greater technological development as well.