Mission Drishti: India’s Push For Sovereign Space Power

Syllabus: GS3/Science & Technology

Context

• Recently, Mission Drishti, the world’s first Opto SAR imaging satellite developed by Galax Eye in India, has been successfully launched by placing a 190-kg satellite into a 500-km orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from California.

About Mission Drishti

• It is an earth-observation satellite developed by GalaxEye, founded in 2021.
• The satellite introduces a unique imaging system called ‘OptoSAR’, which integrates:
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor
  • Seven-band multispectral Electro-Optical (EO) imager.
• It is the world’s first operational integration of EO and SAR technologies on a single satellite platform.

Key Technological Features

• OptoSAR Technology: Mission Drishti combines the strengths of Electro-Optical (EO) Imaging and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) together to provide visual clarity and ensure continuity during adverse weather and at night.
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR): It uses radar waves for imaging, and works in all weather conditions. It can penetrate clouds, smoke, and pollution. It produces black-and-white radar imagery.
  • Electro-Optical (EO) Imaging: It captures images in visible and non-visible spectra. It produces detailed optical imagery similar to conventional satellite photos. It is limited by cloud cover, poor visibility, and pollution.
• AI-Based Onboard Processing: The satellite uses Nvidia’s Jetson Orin computing platform to process raw data directly in orbit.
  • It has advantages like faster image generation, reduced dependence on ground stations, enhanced accuracy through real-time data fusion, and efficient bandwidth utilisation.
  • The integrated imagery reportedly offers resolution up to 1.5 metres.
• High Revisit Capability: Mission Drishti revisits the same region every four days, allowing detection of recent changes, monitoring of dynamic events, and better temporal analysis.

Why is this Important for India?

• Strengthening Strategic Capabilities: India has traditionally depended on foreign commercial imagery providers such as Maxar Technologies for high-resolution satellite imagery. However, foreign providers may face geopolitical restrictions.
  • Mission Drishti provides sovereign control over strategic data, independent surveillance capability, enhanced border and maritime monitoring.
• Defence Applications: Border surveillance, tracking military movements, maritime domain awareness, and counter-terror operations.
  • It aligns with India’s goal of achieving strategic autonomy.
• Agricultural Benefits: The satellite can support crop health monitoring, precision agriculture, soil moisture analysis, and early warning for pest infestations.
  • SAR imaging is especially useful in India because tropical regions experience cloud cover nearly 70% of the time; and optical satellites often fail during monsoons.
  • Thus, Drishti can improve agricultural planning and food security.
• Disaster Management: Mission Drishti can assist in flood mapping, cyclone tracking, forest fire assessment, and landslide monitoring.
  • Since radar can penetrate clouds and smoke, it becomes crucial during natural disasters when optical imagery becomes ineffective.
  • It supports the objectives of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA); and climate resilience planning.
• Infrastructure and Urban Planning: The dual-imaging system can help monitor highways and railways, track illegal mining, assess urban expansion, and improve smart city planning.
• Broader Implications: Expansion of India’s space economy, export of satellite data services, growth of deep-tech startups, employment generation, and increased foreign investment.
  • India aims to increase its share in the global space economy significantly in the coming decade.

Related Efforts by India in the Space Sector

• Space Sector Reforms (2020): The Government opened the space sector to private participation in 2020.
  • It allowed private companies to build satellites, launch vehicles, and applications.
  • It enabled access to ISRO infrastructure and expertise, and encouraged public-private partnerships.
• Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe): It was established as a single-window autonomous agency, and functions under the Department of Space.
  • It authorises private space activities, provides access to ISRO facilities, and facilitates testing and launch support.
  • IN-SPACe has supported GalaxEye through access to testing infrastructure, regulatory approvals, and technical facilitation.
• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL): It is the commercial arm of ISRO that promotes commercial utilisation of space technologies, including launch services, satellite services, and technology transfer to private firms.
• Indian Space Policy 2023: The policy clarified the roles of ISRO, NSIL, IN-SPACe, and private sector entities.
  • Its key objectives include encouraging private investment, increasing India’s share in the global space economy, and promoting indigenous manufacturing.
• Development of Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC): India’s indigenous satellite navigation system.
  • It provides accurate positioning services over India and nearby regions.
• Private Startup Ecosystem: India has witnessed rapid growth in space startups such as Skyroot Aerospace, Agnikul Cosmos, Pixxel, Bellatrix Aerospace, Dhruva Space, and GalaxEye.
  • These startups are contributing in launch vehicles, satellite imaging, space propulsion, and space data analytics.
• Defence Space Agency (DSA): It was established to strengthen military space capabilities. It focuses on space surveillance, satellite communication, and space-based intelligence.

Challenges Ahead

• Technological Challenges: Miniaturisation of advanced sensors, maintaining imaging precision, and managing large data streams.
• Regulatory and Security Concerns: Data privacy, strategic misuse, and cybersecurity threats.
• Competition: India needs to compete with firms like Maxar (USA), Planet Labs and commercial satellite firms based on China.

Conclusion

• Mission Drishti marks a transformative moment in India’s space journey. GalaxEye has demonstrated that Indian private startups can develop globally competitive space technologies by integrating EO and SAR technologies into a single platform.
• The mission strengthens India’s strategic independence, disaster response capability, agricultural intelligence, and commercial space ecosystem.
• It validates India’s policy of opening the space sector to private enterprise while maintaining sovereign control over critical technologies.

Source: BS