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India Is Doing Space Travel, on a Budget - YouTube
Channel: Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals
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Five, four, three, two, one, zero.
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In 2019, millions of Indias watched on
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as their nation launched
its most ambitious
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lunar mission to date.
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Over $80 million had been spent
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and the nation's pride was
on display and on the line.
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Narendra Modi, India's Prime Minister
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watched from mission
control as the lunar lander
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made its final heart-stopping descent.
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Then communication was lost.
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The lander had crashed
into the lunar surface.
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The encouragement and solidarity
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of Prime Minister Modi.
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Despite the failure, this mission signaled
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a new direction for India's
space agency, the ISRO.
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Through the 90's it had created arguably
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the world's most cost
effective space program.
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With NASA, it was about
pushing the boundaries
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of innovation, sending hardware
to areas in the solar system
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or in the universe that
weren't sent before.
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Within India, it was about
setting up infrastructure
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that could support the country.
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Over the last decade India has ripped up
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it's old rule book and launched missions
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to Mars and the Moon.
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The early ambition of helping
its people is now extending
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to leading the world.
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Our current prime minister, Mr. Modi,
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he does see space as a strategic sector.
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Historically, India has not competed
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with the mega budget and ambitions
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of the great space faring
nations, but that's changed.
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India now wants to take its
next giant leap into space.
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India's space story stands apart
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from the space pioneering nations.
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In July 1980, over two
decades after Sputnik,
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India launched its Rohini satellite.
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Making them the newest
member of an exclusive club.
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But the Indian Space Research Organization
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was trying to do things differently.
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Unlike NASA or the Soviet space program
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which aimed to explore
space for grand, national
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and scientific ambitions,
the ISRO was tasked
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with creating an
indigenous space programme
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solely to allow India to access
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the practical advantages of space.
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India has always maintained
that India wants space science
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to be developed for
betterment of its people.
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If you look at it for
telecommunications, for electronics,
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India has used space
technology for all of that.
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I would say the first 20 odd years,
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the focus was on technology independence.
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How do you build your own satellites,
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your own earth stations?
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How do you launch your own satellites,
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which means you have to build rockets?
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By 1994, India had its
own liquid stages rocket
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the Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle or PSLV.
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Early 2000s to late 2010s is
when PSLV started becoming
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the workhorse for the world.
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People could come here to be
able to launch their satellites
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for a much more cost-effective manner
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and without compromising on quality.
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That changing of building
hardware only for the country
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to then providing these services globally,
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I think started the
beginning of the century
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and PSLV was a very critical cog in that.
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From 1994 to 2017,
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the rocket launched 48 Indian satellites
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and 209 satellites from customers abroad.
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The ISRO had carved out its
own place in the space sector.
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It was the reliable and cost efficient way
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to put a satellite into orbit.
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Launch costs are measured
by how much you pay
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to get one kilogram into orbit.
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In the mid 90's, India's PSLV
rocket was the cheapest way
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to get hardware into space.
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It cost around $8,500 per kilogram.
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That compares to NASA's
Atlas II rocket which cost
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around $18,700 per kilogram.
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Fast forward to now and SpaceX will get you into low orbit
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for a fraction of that cost.
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ISRO has already acknowledged
that the technologies
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that are being developed by
Elon Musk could be a threat
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to their business.
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India's competition is rising.
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There are billionaires
entering into the field.
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For India to maintain
the dominant position,
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the country needs to step up further.
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And that step up for India could be
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its new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle.
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It will have a payload of 500 kg
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and deliver multiple
satellites in one mission.
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But this new rocket may not be enough.
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The ISRO is also developing a
reusable rocket like SpaceX's
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but the timeline on that is less clear.
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In the meantime, India
has signaled its intent
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to fundamentally reset its space program.
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We focused on technology independence.
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Which was essential for
the last several decades.
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Now we need to look outwards and look far.
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Susmita Mohanty has over
two decades experience
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in the space industry and co-founded
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India's first private space
start-up, Earth2Orbit in 2009.
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She now runs a space thinktank.
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We were sort of at the crossroads
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and India started thinking what next?
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We can build our own stuff.
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We can launch our own satellites.
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We use our satellites for
a variety of applications.
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So I think planetary exploration was sort
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of the natural next step if you ask me.
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Susmita's thinktank, Spaceport Sarabhai,
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aims to help private
companies engage with the ISRO
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as well as promote
India's space technology.
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We would like to give
India an international voice,
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especially when it comes
to space law and policy,
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as it relates to the space environment,
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space resource mining, in orbit repair
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and the kind of lower economy
that's starting to emerge.
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We would also like to provide
guidance to the government
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on policy matters,
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using solid research and
stakeholder feedback.
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India's shift from practical space program
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to exploration hinges on the
belief that private companies
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and private money will take over.
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India just doesn't have the budget
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to spend on these things.
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And private investment
can really come in handy.
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The current government
has always maintained
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that there's no reason for a
government to be in business.
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And when you look at space as a business,
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like we have seen in
the U.S. or in Europe,
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the moment you look at space as a business
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and not just as a strategic asset,
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that's when you encourage
private companies
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to pump in more money.
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It's not really new for private companies
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to invest in Indian space technology.
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Some of the private suppliers
have already supplied to ISRO,
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but now the government is opening up.
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We are seeing private satellite players,
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private launch players.
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So that's something new and fresh,
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which is being welcomed by every party.
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One of those new players is Pixxel.
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Based in Bangalore since 2019,
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they make satellite hardware and software.
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We fit in the new mould of companies
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that are operating
independently without having
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to depend on government
support, but work hand in hand
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to make sure that whatever
heritage that the country has had
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can now be taken to global stages as well.
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We're building a constellation
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of the world's first
hyperspectral imaging satellites
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that will provide a much more
detailed view of our planet
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than has been possible.
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The constellation will be
global and it will provide data
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on a daily basis as well.
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On the software side of
things, we take this data
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and we build the tools
that will enable extraction
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of insights such as in
prediction, soil, health,
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how's the pollution happening?
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Pixxel is part of a new crop of startups
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vying for ISRO contracts.
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Historically, it's been very
difficult for smaller companies
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to win big state deals.
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But that's changing.
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ISRO has done all that is needed in terms
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of indigenous capability.
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Now it's the responsibility
of the private sector
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to take those up, whether
it's communication
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Earth observation, GPS and
whatnot, and build on top of that.
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That leaves space agencies
to do cutting edge work
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that only governments
are willing to spend,
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a private company can never
spend billions of dollars
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on something that is
only for purely research
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and scientific perspective.
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This shift in Indian space policy
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is been driven by Prime
Minster Modi himself.
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He has encouraged India's space ambitions
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to be a source of national pride.
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He does see space as a strategic sector,
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both from an economy point of
view and a geopolitical tool.
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He wants the country to sort of progress
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towards a $5 trillion economy.
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So space can play a very big role,
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both in terms of products and services.
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As a politician, he knows how
space can strategically help
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when it comes to war deterrence.
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Space can play a role there
and also a role in diplomacy.
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So I think he uses both facets of space.
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But while the government
is drumming up support
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critics point out the
contradiction that upwards
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of 360 million Indians live in poverty.
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India is a developing country
that runs a fiscal deficit,
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that runs a budget deficit.
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So the amount of money you
put into the space budget
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is going to be always under scrutiny
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for a country that doesn't
have enough toilets
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for its own people.
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Do you really want to spend
money on space technology?
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And the government does
have a tough time at times
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to convince people why
space technology is needed.
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But at the same time, there
are some big advocates for it.
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I don't think it's an either or situation
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it's that if we spend
on space doesn't mean
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you're not spending anything
on making other things better.
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I'll just take an example.
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Schools in India are spread apart.
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Some of them don't have
connectivity to fiber optics.
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They don't have connectivity
to any kind of internet.
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When India launched its indigenous
communication satellite,
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a lot of these schools
were able to come online
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and be connected with
what the other regions
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of the country were doing
just from the fact that
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there were a few communications satellites
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that were sent up that
enable that connectivity.
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Because getting the other infrastructure
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from a wide perspective
was simply not possible.
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India's spending needs
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to be put in perspective.
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The U.S. remains the
undisputed big spender,
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accounting for 58% of
the world's space budget,
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with $47.7 billion spent in 2020.
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China, which has significantly
increased its spending,
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takes second with $8.9 billion.
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In 2020, India spent just over $2 billion.
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What the ISRO and India's
space sector is most proud of
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is what they have achieved with so little.
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If you look at the budget
for India's space missions
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to the moon and to Mars, you
realize that they actually cost
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a fraction of what it costs
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to make a Hollywood movie on space.
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India's first Mars mission,
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cost less than the film "The Martian".
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India got it's satellite to
the red planet for $74 million.
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$20 million dollar less than
the budget for the film.
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Then when you compare their
mission to other nations,
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the contrast is even starker.
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NASA's Mars satellite,
Maven, cost $651 million,
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that's more than eight times
the cost of the Indian mission.
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But being frugal may not be
sustainable or desirable.
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I think budget constraints
can be a good thing,
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but it can also be a limiting factor.
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So if you have budget
constraints, it invariably
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helps you do things using
methods of frugal engineering,
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but that's not always good
when you look at the market
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and the economy.
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In the sense, if I want to go
and compete internationally,
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I'm a company in Bangalore.
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I would want the kind of capital
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that a company in California has
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to be able to compete internationally.
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So I think we should not
stop at frugal engineering.
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India is looking at space,
not just as a strategic asset,
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but also as sort of a source
of future profitability.
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If you look at the likes of
what Elon Musk are doing,
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they're trying to colonize other
planets and any country,
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any company, any individual
that does it first,
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will have a big first mover advantage.
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I think in order to make space exploration
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in the coming half century be
more humanistic and inclusive
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geographically speaking,
racially, ethnically,
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is going to be a huge challenge
because a lot of the money
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rests in a certain part of the world,
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it would end up being
an expedition of sorts
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where you would only have
the wealthy participate,
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leaving behind a large
section of the earth,
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it's not going to look very pretty.
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In 1990, Asia nations represented
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only 9% of global space spending,
now it's 19% and rising.
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India is determined to be
a leader not a follower
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in the new space race.
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