The PSLV C62 failure, which led to the loss of 16 satellites, has dealt a blow to ISRO and three Hyderabad-based startups—Dhruva Space, TakeMe2Space and Eon Space Labs.The failure of the PSLV C62 mission on Monday, in which 16 satellites were lost, was not just a major setback for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); it was also a setback for 3 Hyderabad-based start-ups—Dhruva Space, TakeMe2Space, and Eon Space Labs—which were hoping to demonstrate some path-breaking space developments.
Dhruva Space alone had 5 deployers on board ISRO’s workhorse, carrying around half-a-dozen satellites, including its own P-Dot cubesat Thybolt-3, CGUSAT-1, DSAT-1, Lachit-1, Munal Satellite of Nepal, Sanskar Sat, as well as TakeMe2Space‘s MOI-1 satellite. MOI-1 carried Eon Space Labs‘ MIRA, an advanced miniaturised space telescope that was to demonstrate the ability of AI models to analyse image data while in orbit.
TakeMe2Space’s MOI-1 was to be the world’s first cybercafe, or data centre, in space and an orbital AI image lab, enabling users to rent onboard processing time, with an eye on beating tech giant Google’s Project Sun Catcher, which is developing solar-powered AI data centres in space to cut the need for the huge energy requirements of AI on Earth.
“The loss is not in terms of money, as we now have the capability to rebuild MOI-1 in just 2 months, but in terms of the lost opportunity. The key thing for us is how to get a launch opportunity fast because my competition is Google’s Project Sun Catcher, which is a direct competitor that plans to go into orbit in 2027. We want to be first globally to grab the data centre game in space and launch from India. So that’s the only derailer for us,” Ronak Kumar Samantray, founder CEO, TakeMe2Space, told TOI.
MOI-1 is a 14 kg, 120-watt compute satellite equipped with an Nvidia GPU for on-orbit data processing that was to work like a data centre in space, providing service at $2 per minute.
Dhruva Space co-founder and CEO Sanjay Nekkanti said that, though it was a setback, the bigger question was how fast they could rebound and get their satellites back into orbit. “As start-ups, we are very agile and we should be able to do it very fast, in about a couple of months. But the issue is finding a launch vehicle. We opted for PSLV as it is ISRO’s workhorse.”
For Eon Space Labs co-founder Sanjay Kumar, too, the failed mission was more of a missed opportunity to demonstrate the space capability of their advanced multispectral Earth-imaging space telescope, MIRA, which is India’s lightest and smallest space telescope, weighing only about 500 gm.
“It was really important for us to get it right for the first time, and fortunately we did so well that we were able to qualify for flying it on PSLV C62. In terms of timeline, it set us back by at least 2 to 3 months, as it took that much time to get our payload ready again. The good news is that we were able to do it in such a short time frame, as we developed the ability to”
Dr Subba Rao Pavuluri, President, SatCom Industry Association (SIA-India), and Chairman and Managing Director of Ananth Technologies, supplied avionics and systems for some of the satellites as well.
“All our systems and avionics in the launch vehicle and satellites worked well. But something seems to have gone wrong on the propulsion side. It’s a big setback as PSLV is ISRO’s workhorse. The failure of the second mission could impact the credibility and confidence levels as well. It could take about 9 months to 1 year to rebuild some of the bigger satellites for relaunch,” Dr Subba Rao said.
Leave a Reply