Space surveillance and intelligence firm Digantara got the idea of tracking objects in space after seeing the huge problem of space debris, founder and CEO Anirudh Sharma told NDTV in Davos.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated the Digantara team for the success of ‘Mission SCOT’, calling it “an important contribution of the growing Indian space industry towards enhancing space situational awareness”.
“I started this company without any background in space technology. So it was more of an accident for me when I was working towards building a satellite as part of the ISRO Student Satellite Launch Programme. The idea of tracking space objects came about because “the satellites we launched as students were hit by space debris,” Mr Sharma, a 26-year-old, told NDTV at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos. They went, Where some of the world’s greatest leaders and thinkers were present.”
The young space tech entrepreneur told NDTV, “That’s when we realized that the problem of space debris is big. We should work towards traffic management solutions for space, just like we have air traffic management for the aviation industry. We should work towards space debris management solutions.” A similar solution is required.” ,
“This mission is mostly about tracking objects in space in a simple way. The maps we are making are for space, by tracking every single object in orbit. We are also helping in developing navigation equipment for satellite operations. A library is being constructed for the use,” Mr Sharma said.
Digantara announced on 16 January that ‘Mission SCOT’ had successfully established contact with its ground station. The spacecraft deployed the solar panel array, reported positive power levels and proper stabilization.
Mr Sharma said there are a lot of satellites going up right now and most of them are commercial, so there needs to be a solution to track them.
“Initially, it was very difficult for us to find the infrastructure where we could build these solutions. Later, we joined the Indian Institute of Science and they also invested in us. So this was the first step we took to build credibility in the country. As a founder in building something and creating solutions in the space tech ecosystem, the second thing is venture capital funding,” Mr Sharma said.
He said they eventually managed to get funding from Sequoia Capital India, now Peak 15 Partners, Kalaari Capital and “good people who have invested in our company”.
On the security implications of the project, Mr Sharma said, “Apart from tracking space objects, one of the things we do is to provide information about the activities of adversary satellites by tracking them. This is very important from the national security point of view because Geopolitically, we’ve seen a lot of wars and a lot of wars involving space.”
Mr Sharma said that with satellites in orbit that can monitor a certain part of the country, the company helps officials understand when a satellite will and will not pass over that area.
“For that, we need intelligence where we track these objects and understand how close they are coming to any particular satellite or ground location of ours, where it is right now. Providing insight into adversarial satellite movement is something like What we do is for national security,” Mr Sharma said.
He said Team Digantara has 100 people, the oldest of whom is 76 years old, who has experience of working with the US government and is the company’s US subsidiary. Mr Sharma said that many former ISRO scientists are also working with Digantara in India.
The five-day meeting, which began today in Davos, is exploring ways to restart growth, harness new technologies and strengthen social and economic resilience, according to the World Economic Forum. Nearly 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries are participating in the global meeting, including 350 government leaders.
India’s participation in Davos aims to strengthen partnerships, attract investments and position the country as a global leader in sustainable development and technological innovation. India sent five Union Ministers, three Chief Ministers and ministers from several other states to the WEF this time.
