In a significant announcement on National Space Day, President of India Droupadi Murmu has reaffirmed India's commitment to making all its space missions debris-free by 2030.
This ambitious goal demonstrates India's dedication to sustainable space exploration and its growing role as a responsible global space power.
The President, reflecting on the recent success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, expressed her pride in witnessing the historic lunar landing.
She highlighted the mission's groundbreaking discovery of the "Lunar Magma Hypothesis," which suggests that the Moon was once a magma ocean. This finding could revolutionize our understanding of lunar formation and geological history.
President Murmu also emphasised the importance of the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, which aims to send Indian astronauts to space. This mission represents a significant leap in India's human spaceflight capabilities and is eagerly anticipated as the next milestone in the country's space journey.
However, the President acknowledged the growing challenge of space debris, which poses a threat to all space missions. In response to this global concern, India has set an ambitious target to ensure all its space missions are debris-free by 2030.
This commitment aligns with the Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) recent efforts to implement deorbiting techniques and careful mission planning to minimise space debris.
The initiative to achieve debris-free missions by 2030 involves meticulous design and execution of guidelines for all Indian space actors, both governmental and non-governmental.
These guidelines include selecting clean orbits, budgeting fuel for post-mission disposals, and efficiently controlling trajectories during atmospheric re-entry.
Isro has already demonstrated progress in this area, with recent missions showing significant reductions in orbital debris. The agency plans to implement these debris-free approaches for each mission beginning in 2025, marking a proactive stance in addressing this critical issue.
By setting this goal, India is positioning itself as a leader in sustainable space exploration. The country's efforts not only contribute to the long-term sustainability of outer space activities but also set an example for other spacefaring nations to follow.
Source: India Today