Infosphere

Some have been complaining that spending on Gaganyaan at this time is a waste of money during the COVID19 crisis, even if it's meant to boost our profile in space technology. I was thinking that maybe there's an alternative space endeavour which could more provide us with better and more tangible returns on our money, and on a faster timeframe, while not looking like a mere vanity project.

I noticed that the Russians have recently rushed to announce their own version of the Falcon-9 reusable rocket, called Amur. This new Russian reusable rocket looks just like a knockoff copy of Falcon-9 made from Russian parts, so it's clear that the Russians were trying to get this done as fast as possible. SpaceX has been flying Falcon-9 for awhile now, but the Russians never really cared much about it before. However, ever since SpaceX announced their new Starlink constellation network of satellites, that's what's suddenly lit a fire under the Russians to get them scrambling for their own cheap reusable rocket. They didn't care about having a new reusable rocket per se, but they see it as a prerequisite for getting their own constellations into orbit, in order to keep up with Starlink and similar developments on the US side.

I feel India also needs to look toward deploying its own constellation network of satellites to keep up with US, Russia, and others (no doubt China will soon follow with its own project). We've already created NAVIC to meet our military needs independent of GPS. ISRO has even demonstrated the ability to deploy over a hundred satellites in a single launch. So the ability to put up our own version of Starlink should be within our means. Elon Musk and SpaceX have conceived of Starlink for the purpose of generating the massive revenues that would be required to fund their dreams of colonizing Mars, etc. India could likewise hope to generate large revenues from its own version of Starlink, which we could use for funding the country's development.

In connection with this, ISRO should also be tasked to develop our own robust reusable launch vehicle, to economically and reliably launch and maintain a large constellation of satellites at reduced launch cost. Such a vehicle could then eventually serve a greater purpose of creating a sustained presence in space for the country, including human presence, extending beyond Earth orbit, etc.

But a key purpose of having our own satellite constellation network would be to allow us to supply our own information content to the world. By having our own orbital network infrastructure, we would then control what informational content gets disseminated on that network. We would be able to ensure that information representing our point of view is available for the rest of the world. India already has considerable experience in filmmaking and entertainment, spanning across multiple languages. We've also seen a recent flourishing boom in english language news channels, which are now able to provide ample reply to the traditionally foreign-dominated news domain. These things are further complemented by Indian expertise in information technology. With ISRO, we also have very advanced capabilities in space technology. In every one of these areas our costs are already competitive, and combining all of these things together can enable us to create our own Infosphere - a global information domain that's completely independent and unblockable by others - which can provide everyone on the planet with content that represents the world from an Indian point of view. In the bargain, Indians would reap the revenues that come from supplying connectivity services and content distribution, along with user data mining, all while engaging multiple high-employment industries already well established in India. All the ingredients are there for us to do this, we just have to embrace the idea as part of our strategic vision, and commit to it.