PM Narendra Modi in his address to nation says India's Mission Shakti has shot down a low-orbit satellite using ASAT missile. PM was quick to point out the intent of 'Mission Shakti' is to defend India’s space assets and not to start any arms race.
India has shot down a low-earth orbit satellite in space, propelling itself into an elite club of nations, which has mastered this anti-satellite (ASAT) missile technology, said PM Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on Wednesday. PM Modi, however, was quick to point out the intent of DRDO's "Mission Shakti" is to defend India’s space assets and not to start any arms race in space. Since there are no treaties governing the use of ASAT, India is not in violation of any international conventions.
1. The use of ASAT is seen as crossing new frontier just like India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Anti-satellite technology has so far been in the hands of very few countries: the United States, Russia and China. The acquisition and demonstration of this technology make India a member of an elite group of countries.
2. The fact that this anti-satellite technology is indigenously developed adds to India’s credentials, given that for many decades India was kept away from acquiring key technologies, forcing the country to develop its own space and nuclear capabilities.
3. The anti-satellite space technology shows India’s focus on security challenges, emanating beyond Pakistan. “The ASAT weapon is likely to be the most potent military tool for the armed forces over the next few decades, notwithstanding a revolutionary technological breakthrough," according to Arvind K. John, analyst with New Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation.
4. The acquisition of this technology is expected to have spin-offs that India can exploit for commercial use, both domestic and globally.
Having developed its own vehicles for commercial satellite launches, today India is launching satellites of other countries. There was a time it used to piggyback on French-made launch vehicles such as the Ariane.
“This technological achievement will have many spin-offs that we can exploit for civilian commercial use," said a government official who did not want to be named.
5. Coming as it does after the surgical strikes against Pakistan in 2016 and the Balakot air strike last month, Mission Shakti is expected to burnish the nationalist credentials of PM Modi and the National democratic Alliance (NDA), which has been putting emphasis on indigenously developed technology, skills and enterprise.
Several of the government's programmes such as the Atal Innovation Mission stress the importance of scientific discoveries and inventions at the school and other levels.
G. Satheesh Reddy, the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), told Reuters that a low-altitude military satellite had been picked for the test, in order to reduce the amount of debris left in space. “That’s why we did it at lower altitude, it will vanish in no time,” he told Reuters, adding, “The debris is moving right now. How much debris, we are trying to work out, but our calculations are it should be dying down within 45 days.”
Reuters also reported that the U.S. military’s Strategic Command was tracking more than 250 pieces of debris created by Mission Shakti, and it would issue “close-approach notifications as required until the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere,” as stated by Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn.
Well, as per a simulation by a software engineering company called Analytical Graphics Inc. (which, according to its website, "visualizes objects in space and time with unprecedented accuracy") a debris field of 6500 pieces was created by the destruction of the satellite.
And the thing is, while firing an anti-satellite missile and bringing down an unoffending orbital object vaguely makes for good optics, it definitely makes for bad physics. The amount of space litter orbiting the planet is literally running out of space to orbit.
The US and Russia have both tested similar technology in the 1980s, though the former ceased its anti-satellite tests in 1985, citing concerns over the creation of more space debris. Meanwhile, China conducted its own first successful anti-satellite test in 2007, which led to condemnation from other world powers, especially after NASA claimed that the Chinese experiment had created a record 3000 pieces of space debris.
India has shot down a low-earth orbit satellite in space, propelling itself into an elite club of nations, which has mastered this anti-satellite (ASAT) missile technology, said PM Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on Wednesday. PM Modi, however, was quick to point out the intent of DRDO's "Mission Shakti" is to defend India’s space assets and not to start any arms race in space. Since there are no treaties governing the use of ASAT, India is not in violation of any international conventions.
Why Mission Shakti is path-breaking:
1. The use of ASAT is seen as crossing new frontier just like India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Anti-satellite technology has so far been in the hands of very few countries: the United States, Russia and China. The acquisition and demonstration of this technology make India a member of an elite group of countries.
2. The fact that this anti-satellite technology is indigenously developed adds to India’s credentials, given that for many decades India was kept away from acquiring key technologies, forcing the country to develop its own space and nuclear capabilities.
3. The anti-satellite space technology shows India’s focus on security challenges, emanating beyond Pakistan. “The ASAT weapon is likely to be the most potent military tool for the armed forces over the next few decades, notwithstanding a revolutionary technological breakthrough," according to Arvind K. John, analyst with New Delhi-based think-tank Observer Research Foundation.
4. The acquisition of this technology is expected to have spin-offs that India can exploit for commercial use, both domestic and globally.
Having developed its own vehicles for commercial satellite launches, today India is launching satellites of other countries. There was a time it used to piggyback on French-made launch vehicles such as the Ariane.
“This technological achievement will have many spin-offs that we can exploit for civilian commercial use," said a government official who did not want to be named.
5. Coming as it does after the surgical strikes against Pakistan in 2016 and the Balakot air strike last month, Mission Shakti is expected to burnish the nationalist credentials of PM Modi and the National democratic Alliance (NDA), which has been putting emphasis on indigenously developed technology, skills and enterprise.
Several of the government's programmes such as the Atal Innovation Mission stress the importance of scientific discoveries and inventions at the school and other levels.
Mission Shakti May Have Created 6500 Pieces of Space Debris
G. Satheesh Reddy, the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), told Reuters that a low-altitude military satellite had been picked for the test, in order to reduce the amount of debris left in space. “That’s why we did it at lower altitude, it will vanish in no time,” he told Reuters, adding, “The debris is moving right now. How much debris, we are trying to work out, but our calculations are it should be dying down within 45 days.”
Reuters also reported that the U.S. military’s Strategic Command was tracking more than 250 pieces of debris created by Mission Shakti, and it would issue “close-approach notifications as required until the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere,” as stated by Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn.
Well, as per a simulation by a software engineering company called Analytical Graphics Inc. (which, according to its website, "visualizes objects in space and time with unprecedented accuracy") a debris field of 6500 pieces was created by the destruction of the satellite.
And the thing is, while firing an anti-satellite missile and bringing down an unoffending orbital object vaguely makes for good optics, it definitely makes for bad physics. The amount of space litter orbiting the planet is literally running out of space to orbit.
The US and Russia have both tested similar technology in the 1980s, though the former ceased its anti-satellite tests in 1985, citing concerns over the creation of more space debris. Meanwhile, China conducted its own first successful anti-satellite test in 2007, which led to condemnation from other world powers, especially after NASA claimed that the Chinese experiment had created a record 3000 pieces of space debris.
