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Episode 81: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

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Simonetta Di Pippo. Director United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Credit: Author

Ensuring the peaceful uses of outer space has been the primary objectives of the United Nations through the Outer Space treaty established in 1968. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) achieves this by promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. This interview with UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo was recorded at IAC 2018. Some parts may be a little noisy. An audio and video of this episode are available below.

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UNOOSA serves as the secretariat for the General Assembly’s only committee dealing exclusively with international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space: the  United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

  • UNOOSA Projects. Credit UNOOSA
  • UN GNSS. Credit UNOOSA
  • Credit UNOOSA

Some of the highlights include:

  • UNOOSA is responsible for maintaining the public register of all space objects ever launched to Earth orbit and beyond.
  • United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER)  is a flagship programme established in 2006.  UN-Spider has access to multiple space agencies to acquire historical and current satellite images to help with emergency disaster management from wherever they arise – Earthquakes, flooding, Forrest Fires and threats from outer space including Space weather and near-Earth Asteroids. 
  • Outer Space Treaty is a “masterpiece”. UN operates through a mechanism of consensus. It is this consensus why the Outer Space Treaty is so resilient. Still operational and relevant more than fifty years after it was founded. It remains coherent and powerful and will remain so through the coming phase of commercial space operations. 
  • UNOOSA acts as a broker to promote International Collaboration. Japanese Space Agency promoting small satellites projects from developing nations and university student projects and thus fostering the development of National Space Agencies around the world (currently about 70 countries). The Japanese Space Agency, Jaxa is helping new countries such as Kenya, Hungary, UAE, Guatemala, Mauritius and Indonesia to have some level of space presence .
  • UNOOSA supported China National Space Agency’s  Announcement of Opportunity to host payloads on the China Space Station. A total of 36 proposals were received for payloads aboard CSS. A selection process is now underway.
  • As a separate announcement, CNSA announced that China will host Pakistan’s first astronaut aboard the CSS by 2022. Although Pakistan’s Space Agency SUPARCO has not yet mentioned it on its website.
Simonetta Di Pippo. Director of United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs

Episode 80 – S Somnath Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

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S Somnath. Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Credit. Author

S. Somnath joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in 1985 and today he is its director. With more than three decades at ISRO he has held several key posts including director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre. This episode is available in audio and video below.

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This interview was recorded on 5th October 2018 in Bremen germany during the IAC2018., so is a little noisy in parts.

  • ISRO delegation at IAC2018. Credit IAC2018
  • Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Credit ISRO
  • ISRO Stand at IAC 2018. Credit Author

Some highlights include

  • Satish Dhawan – Brought a new vision and restructured ISRO at the organisation level. He consolidated and integrated specialist centres throughout India to the national organisational structure that exists today.
  • Only solid propellants are manufactured on site at Sriharikota. Liquid and cryogenic propellants are transported over a journey of a day and a half from ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Centre to Sriharikota. Currently, only roads are used but sea transport may be an option in the future.
  • The heavy lift GSLV Mk3  second development flight is scheduled to launch before the end of 2018.  A target of three successful development flights is required before GSLV Mk3 is designated as operational.
  • Currently, Sriharikota launch capacity of 12 to 18 launches per year, is determined by the capacity of industry to manufacture launch vehicles. The private sector has all the technological competencies but lacks the capacity. 
  • An additional launch site would not be of value at this time. Once the private sector capacity increases – within the next 2 to 3 years, then additional launch sites would be of use.
  • VSSC played a key role in developing the technologies required for the Human Space Flight programme. The  Pad Abort Test was successful. The parachute detached at the planned time and not prematurely as it looks in the video.
S Somnath. Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre

Episode 79: satsearch.co – A single digital marketplace for the global space supply chain?

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Satsearch co-founders  – Kartik Kumar, Alberto Vaccarella and Narayan Prasad

A space startup based in The Netherlands – www.satsearch.co is attempting to establish a single digital global marketplace for space components, products and services.  Ultimately, Satsearch’s goal is to reduce cost and time by helping customers for and suppliers of space components, products and services find each other online.  This episode available in audio and video below.

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The Satsearch website/portal is hosted on a cloud-based environment (Amazon Web Services) and is only available in English but other languages are in the pipeline. Currently, the service to both suppliers and customers is free of charge. How it will make money in the future is not yet year clear but the current focus is on growth. The founders hope to develop Satsearch into a  sort of “yellow pages” for space products and services but with a richer vendor-neutral metadata interface supported by modern AI tools and applications.

Episode 78: ISRO’s early Earth Observation Cameras with former chairman Mr Kiran Kumar

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Dr Kiran Kumar. Credit ISRO

Mr Kiran Kumar studied physics, physical engineering and electronics in educational institutions in India including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. He specialised in electro-optical imaging systems and in 1975 was recruited by Dr Yash Pal (one of a few key individuals who played a pivotal role in the early days of India’s space programme) to ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad.

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During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue devices that he started working with before moving on to modern solid state devices such as  Charged Couple Devices (CCDs). He contributed to imaging systems in India’s first remote sensing satellite (Bhaskara-1) and deep space missions to the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) and Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission).

During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue devices that he started working with before moving on to modern solid state devices such as  Charged Couple Devices (CCDs). He contributed to imaging systems in India’s first remote sensing satellite (Bhaskara-1) and deep space missions to the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) and Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission).

A few highlights from the interview recorded on 22 September 2018

  • Had considered medicine as a career but a combination of not meeting the age criteria by 22 days and National College in Bangalore initiating a new Physics Honours course in 1968, he chose Physics.
  • Strongly influenced by physicist and ardent rationalist  Dr.H.Narasimhaiah who later became the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University
  • Has a clear memory of Gagarin’s spaceflight in 1961 and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969.
  • Graduated in 1971, the same year that Vikram Sarabhai died. He never saw or met him.
  • In 1975, he was working on his Mtec at the IISc when India’s first satellite, Aryabhata was launched. He worked on Bhaskara – initially known as Satellite for Earth Observation
  • In the mid-1970s only four metropolitan areas in India had television reception. The SITE programme illustrated the benefits of satellite communication in delivering education to small rural communities across India.
  • During 1995-1999 – ISRO had the highest spatial resolution imaging capability from space in the civilian domain.
  • Using Commercial Off the Shelf products (or parts from COTS product) is not unusual for experimental space missions.
  • Moving into the Chairman’s role was not onerous. Previous experience as director of an ISRO centre provided the required experience.

Although Kiran Kumar stood down from the chairman’s role in January 2018, he remains active within ISRO.