Elon Musk’s Around-The-World trotting Starship mission recently crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Is the hidden underdog India that mystery key to Elon’s dream to successfully colonize Mars faster?
New Delhi, India - With the dream to one day grow plants on Mars, Elon Musk started SpaceX in 2002 with the sole purpose to reduce the space transportation costs that could one enable us to colonize Mars.
And it’s been going rather great, SpaceX just launched the Crew-5 mission, a NASA mission that successfully carried 5 astronauts to the International Space Station for a 6-months long stay in orbit.
But there were some hiccups too, namely the recent failure of SpaceX’s Starship mission which wanted to conduct the test of a high-altitude autonomous test flight.
Clearly, even with all the fast-paced technological advancement in a rather short amount of time SpaceX and Elon Musk need all the help they could get in order to create cost-effective outer space transportation.
While we were all awed by everything SpaceX, India had been silently and steadily perfecting the same goal SpaceX was created for but from even earlier.
On April 2nd, 2023, in Chitradurga, Karnataka, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization released a statement in which they confirmed the success of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX).
The statement further said, "The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle's landing high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path as if the vehicle arrives from space. LEX utilized several indigenous systems. Localized Navigation systems, instrumentation, and sensor systems, etc. were developed by ISRO."
This successful mission is projected to cut launch costs by 80%.
This is big news. Not just for the industrious ISRO scientists, the country of India but for the whole world and especially for SpaceX.
And such encouraging news doesn’t seem to stop coming from the land of thousand cultures.
India just approved the Indian Space Policy 2023 which makes it easier with a clear framework for private companies that are willing to invest in the Indian space sector.
A UK-based company OneWeb being the prime example that just contracted the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, for a second time to execute the launch of its 72 satellites in the lower earth orbit.
OneWeb confirmed receiving signals from 36 of its new satellites.
Because of the recent amendments made in the Indian space sector policies, a plethora of space startups have been on the rise which all promise to provide cheaper auto parts and services for private companies who may want to launch payloads of their satellites and other payloads.
The Agnibaan rocket from Agnikul Cosmos, a new space startup in India, can launch payloads of 100 kgs (220 lbs) for price-conscious private customers.
While in Bengaluru, India, Skyroot Aerospace, another space startup, just successfully tested India’s first privately developed rocket.
Another recent space startup, Azista BST Aerospace, which is a venture between a German design firm and an Indian manufacturer promises it can make some 50 satellites a year on a 20% less budget that its rivals anywhere else.
Azista BST Aerospace is planning on launching its first remote-sensing satellite aboard a SpaceX rocket this June.
If the dream to make outer space traveling available for everyone is a concern, it is without a doubt a good thought to keep our eyes on India and ISRO. With their Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV) rockets, they created the staple of cheapest access to outer space back in the late 90s to early 2000s.
They are the ones who reached the Martian orbit successfully in their first attempt on a comparatively negligible budget of US$75 million back in 2014.
All this points out that India will play a key role in the advancement of outer space exploration since it has a unique outlook and expertise when it comes to space technology.
The possible inclusion of ISRO with SpaceX could propel our current understanding of the technology needed for cheaper outer space travel and colonization of Mars
