India’s President, Droupadi Murmu, has declared that all space missions by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be ‘debris-free’ by the year 2030.
‘We have to be prepared for challenges ahead. Space debris can cause problems for future space missions,’ she said on the occasion of the first Indian National Space Day yesterday.
The objective of debris-free space missions is sought to be achieved through a four-point action plan by the ISRO, India’s national space agency.
Its most important action will be to avoid generation of debris during the operational life of satellites and launch vehicles as well as during the post-mission disposal phase.
The plan aims to prevent intentional breaking-up of existing debris in space that has been there for long and ensuring the controlled re-entry or de-orbiting to a lower orbit of rockets and spacecraft with less than five years remaining of their orbital and operational life.
Indian space missions will also seek to ‘avoid on-orbit collision or break-up
of satellites and launch vehicles through failure mode studies, redundant systems and mission design with high reliability,’ according to the action plan.
S Somanath, ISRO’s Chairman and Secretary of India’s Department of Space, said the ‘Debris-Free Space Missions Initiative’ will be brought to the attention of the international community and global space actors to encourage them to join this effort.
‘Implementation of this initiative will start in stages by the beginning of next year so that it can be fully operational by 2030,’ he said.
India’s decision to observe National Space Day marks the first anniversary of the landing of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 space vehicle on the Moon’s South Pole on 23rd August last year.
Source: Emirates News Agency