40 years of cooperation between ESA and ISRO
ESPI, Vienna, 1st February 2017
ESA UNCLASSIFIED - For Official Use Introduction
ESA as a mechanism of international cooperation
§ “The purpose of the Agency shall be to provide for and promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications”. (article 2)
ESA as an actor of international cooperation
§ “The Agency may, upon decisions of the Council taken by unanimous votes of all Member States, cooperate with other international organisations and institutions and with governments, organisations and institutions of non- member States, and conclude agreements with them to this effect”. (article 14)
Slide 2 Strong ties all over the world
Partnership: one of ESA’s key words
As a European research and development organisation, ESA is a programmatically driven organisation, i.e. the international cooperation is driven by programmatic needs and rationale more than a general “foreign policy” as is the case for Sovereign States.
§ Strategic partnerships with USA, Russia and China
§ Long-standing cooperation with Japan, India, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, Australia and many more…
§ EU Members, but not ESA Member States: enhanced cooperation and joint activities. Associate member: Slovenia. European Cooperating States (ECS): Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia. Cooperating States: Malta. Discussions are ongoing with Croatia.
Slide 3 International cooperation objectives (1/2)
§ Securing an ESA participation in large and complex international programmes (e.g. ISS, exploration to Moon, Mars & other celestial bodies, etc.).
§ Leveraging ESA resources via international cooperation in order to bring in contributions from international partners to expand ESA programmatic deliveries.
§ Securing international operational support to ESA missions (e.g. ground stations for telemetry, deep space network, etc.).
§ Optimising ESA missions’ exploitation and data access via dedicated agreements to both secure ESA access to non-ESA missions and, when appropriate, facilitate the dissemination of ESA missions’ data around the world.
§ Serving the interests of the Member States and of the EU for general international policies and for EU-funded programmes.
Slide 4 International cooperation objectives (2/2)
§ The management of relations/contacts with international interlocutors, through different actions, to maintain a relevant network for the benefit and interest of ESA – in particular to develop confidence-building –, to monitor relevant international space developments to advise on possibilities for ESA to seize cooperation opportunities offered by international partners.
§ The expansion of the use of ESA missions’ data to meet global needs if defined as an interest to ESA programmes (e.g. climate change, regional needs, implementation of international and UN conventions, etc.).
§ The facilitation and coordination role of the Agency for Member States actions in the UN context (e.g. COPUOS).
Slide 5 India
§ A large democracy and diversified country
§ “The creed that science will support the development of the country and that scientists should be honoured and associated with policies formulation” (Nehru)
§ A socialist approach in economy (five-year plans) with omnipresence of the government
§ Stability of Government objectives (common guidelines to the Indian space programme from successive Indian governments):
ü Political (unity of India, regional & international role, institutions)
ü Social and economical (education, poverty, development)
ü Strategic and military (defence and prestige, boarders threats)
Slide 6 Europe (EU) and India § 70 years of Independence for India, 60 years for Europe
§ Numerous similarities (2 large democracies, equivalent size, high level education, 28 states in India, 28 states in Europe, cultural diversity, many different languages, etc.)
§ But many differences (growth, economy, infrastructures, protectionism, population, etc.)
§ India-EU cooperation are in the domains of education, cultural exchanges, joint- research in science & technologies, and law enforcement. Slide 7 ESA and ISRO
§ India space programme is an integrated part of the country’s development (Indian power, worldwide influence, balance with China, national pride, independence, low costs, etc.)
§ ESA: research, development and science, more applications
§ ISRO: applications and users oriented, more science, research and development
§ ESA and ISRO: independent access to space is a strategic objective
§ Embargoes in 1974 and in 1998: development of indigenous solutions
§ The first milestone in the development of relations between the 2 organisations was set up when ISRO was selected to develop – with ESA assistance – and provide an experimental telecommunication satellite, Apple, for the third qualification launch of Ariane 1 in 1981 with Meteosat-2. Since that launch, India has turned 20 times to Ariane (GSAT-18 in October 2016 with Ariane5
ECA – VA231) making ISRO one of Arianespace’s best customers. Slide 8 ESA facts and figures
§ Over 50 years of experience
§ 22 Member States
§ 20 sites/facilities, about 2200 staff
§ 5.2 billion Euro budget (2016)
§ Over 100 satellites designed, tested and operated in flight
§ Over 250 launch missions
Slide 9 ISRO facts and figures
§ Over 50 years of experience
§ 1 State: India
§ 20 sites/facilities in India, about 15.000 staff
§ 1 billion Euro budget (2016)
§ Over 84 satellites designed, tested and operated in flight
§ 59 launch missions
Slide 10 ESA and ISRO space activities
space science human spaceflight exploration
ESA and ISRO are among the few space agencies in the world to combine responsibility in nearly all areas of space activity. earth observation launchers navigation
operations technology telecommunications
Slide 11 ESA and ISRO cooperation
§ The first agreement between ESA and ISRO was signed in 1978 after first meetings in 1977. The latest renewal was in January 2017 for 5 years bringing the agreement valid until January 2022.
§ Preamble: “CONVINCED of the benefits which could accrue to India and to the Member States of ESA through the coordination of their efforts in the peaceful uses of outer space”.
§ Article 2 mentions “space science, …, communications, remote sensing, …, navigation, …, microgravity”, ”cooperation on satellite development … formalised through mutual agreements”.
§ Article 5 mentions the possibility to set up “joint working groups” that will examine and define cooperative programmes.
Slide 12 ESA and ISRO: past cooperation (1/2)
§ Long tradition of cooperation in EO
§ In 1991, ESA and NRSA (National Remote Sensing Agency, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Space, DOS – that was converted in 2008 as one of the ISRO centre and renamed NRSC, the National Remote Sensing Centre) signed a MOU for the direct reception, processing, archiving and distribution of ERS-1 SAR data at Shadnagar ground station 50 km away from Hyderabad.
§ It was extended in 1995 for ERS-2.
§ Exchange of EO data, joint training.
§ Members of CEOS, GEO, International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”.
Slide 13 ESA and ISRO: past cooperation (2/2)
§ In 2005, ESA and ISRO have signed an agreement on Chandrayaan-1, the first Indian lunar mission launched in 2008.
§ The objective of the agreement was to provide technical expertise (flight dynamics, mission analysis) and tools inherited from SMART-1 and for flying 3 European instruments on board (a X-ray spectrometer - UK, a particles reflecting analyser - Sweden and an IR spectrometer - Germany).
§ Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008 by a PSLV and the mission was terminated in September 2009.
§ This mission has constituted an important step forward in the cooperation between the 2 agencies and has fostered increased collaboration between European and Indian scientific communities with excellent scientific results
from the analysis of the data collected so far. Slide 14 ESA and ISRO: next step… joint WG
§ ESA DG and Chairman ISRO met in Paris in October 2016 to revitalize the cooperation and agreed to constitute a dedicated joint working group to study possible new cooperation opportunities.
§ The Joint Working Group will report back to the two agency Heads with specific recommendations regarding specific joint projects of interest (by mid 2017) and the status of progress made by the joint working group will be reviewed by the agency Heads and a plan of actions for future cooperation will be proposed.
Slide 15 ESA and ISRO: next step… joint interests
§ Space Science – astrophysics Astrosat (2015), solar physics Aditya (2019-20), hosting payloads § Exploration – Moon village concept and Chandrayaan-2, AO. § Earth observation - access to Sentinel, space science exploration Resourcesat, Cartosat, Oceansat, Scatsat, future Earth Explorer missions, call to join forces for global monitoring of the climate changes, hosting payloads § Launchers – new technologies related to future earth observation space transportation systems launchers navigation § Navigation - support/use of laser ranging stations for navigation satellites § Operations – cross support/use of TT&C ground stations and deep space antenna, space weather
§ Telecommunications – integrated applications operations telecommunications
Slide 16 India and Europe: space cooperation (1/2)
§ EU – India Summit in March 2016 in Brussels : reference to “Space” (interaction Galileo - IRNSS and EO cooperation) in the Agenda for Action-2020
§ ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has launched miniaturized satellites of several European universities and opened payload capacity on Indian CubeSats to European scientific experiments.
§ India relies on Arianespace for the launch of its heavy and large satellites to geosynchronous transfer orbits (20 launches, last in Oct 2016 with GSAT-18).
§ Agreements between Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO and 1) Airbus (jointly address the global market for com sat below 4kW power and launch mass of 2-3 t; aim is to combine platforms), 2) Arianespace (launch of auxiliary payloads)
Slide 17 India and Europe: space cooperation (2/2)
§ France-CNES (EO joint scientific missions: Megha-Tropique on atmospheric monitoring, Altika/Saral on ocean altimetry).
§ Italy-ASI (launch of 350kg astronomy satellite AGILE by PSLV, GNSS receiver devoted to Radio Occultation - ROSA - on board Oceansat-2).
§ Germany-DLR (IRS EO data acquisition and distribution in Europe, EO sensors development, launch of EO satellite Tubsat by PSLV).
§ EUMETSAT cooperation agreement with ISRO on the access and exchange of meteorological information.
Slide 18 Conclusion
§ Lesson learnt from Chandrayaan-1 cooperation: mutual technical and scientific respect, no fears, but don’t know each other well enough, careful wish to cooperate.
It’s not easy to cooperate, but it’s even more difficult to succeed alone…
Slide 19 Would you like to know more? Visit www.esa.int
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