INSPACe

INSPACe

Topic: Science and Tech

Concept:

• Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure.
• This is part of reforms aimed at giving a boost to private sector participation in the entire range of space activities.
• IN-SPACe: It will act as a single-point interface between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and everyone who wants to participate in space-related activities, or use India’s space resources.
• It will also hand-hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies and a friendly regulatory environment.
• Indian National Space Promotion Board: It would be set up to strengthen the Department of Space and for the promotion of the private space entrepreneurs or non-government space entrepreneurs,
• Role of ISRO: The overall idea is to let ISRO concentrate on essential activities like research and development, planetary exploration, and strategic use of space, while freeing itself from ancillary or routine work which could easily be done by private industry.
• Demand Driven Model: By the support of New Space India Limited (NSIL), It would endeavour to reorient space activities from a ‘supply driven’ model to a ‘demand driven’ one, thereby ensuring optimum utilisation of the nation’s space assets.
• The main objective of NSIL is to scale up industry participation in Indian space programmes in comparison to IN-SPACe which gives emphasis on the participation of the private sector.

New Space India Limited:

• NSIL is a Central Public Sector Enterprise of the Government of India.
• It was established in 2019 under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
• Headquarters: Bengaluru
• NSIL is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space related activities and is also responsible for promotion and commercial exploitation of the products and services emanating from the space industry.
• NSIL is incorporated to carry forward the industry production of space systems and the ISRO’s efforts in realising Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) from industry.
• NSIL differs from ISRO’s existing commercial arm Antrix Corporation:
• Antrix will handle ISRO’s commercial deals for satellites and launch vehicles with foreign customers.
• NSIL will deal with capacity building of local industry for space manufacturing.

Global Rules and demands related to Space:

Almost every country agrees that space must not be used for wars and has spoken against weaponisation of space. There are international treaties governing the use of space, that mandate that outer space, and celestial bodies like the Moon, must only be exploited for peaceful purposes.

Outer Space Treaty of 1967:

• India is a party to the Outer Space Treaty. The treaty prohibits countries from placing into orbit around the Earth “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction”.
• It also prohibits the stationing of such weapons on celestial bodies, like the moon, or in outer space. The moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all state parties to the treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes.

There are four more multilateral treaties that deal with specific concepts agreed to in the Outer Space Treaty:

• The Rescue Agreement of 1968
• The Space Liability Convention of 1972
• The Registration Convention of 1976
• The Moon Treaty of 1979
• The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) oversees these treaties and other questions of space jurisdiction. None of these, however, prohibits the kind of test that India carried out recently.
• The international community has been debating for the need to introduce transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities (TCBMS). In this regard, European Union has also prepared a draft code of conduct (CoC). However, major powers are yet to agree on the idea of establishing a CoC conduct.
• Another important idea that has been put on the table jointly by Russia and China is the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space (PPWT) instead of only Weapon of Mass Destruction which is resisted by US and the EU.