In an effort to boost participation of start-ups in innovation in the defence sector, the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), the flagship initiative of the Defence Ministry on Monday reached a milestone with the signing of its 250th contract — first under Mission DefSpace — and 100th SPRINT (Navy) contract in New Delhi. The contracts were signed in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and other senior civil and military officials.
The first iDEX contract of Mission DefSpace was exchanged between Additional Secretary (Defence Production) and CEO Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) T Natarajan and CEO, InspeCity Arindrajit Chowdhary, one of the winners of the challenge ‘Micropropulsion system for cubesats’. This challenge is being led by the Defence Space Agency, defence ministry officials said here.
Cubesats are a class of smallsats, which are modular; low-cost; easy to manufacture, integrate, and launch; and form a critical component for launch-on-demand capabilities. For imagery/Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance/communication purposes, cubesats need to be precisely aligned, hence there is a requirement of a compact micropropulsion system for precise manoeuvring and orbit correction, they said.
InspeCity is developing a gas-based system for this purpose. This technology, once developed, can be integrated with other satellites, including the cubesat swarm being developed under Mission
DefSpace.
Recognising the strategic significance of the space domain, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Mission DefSpace with 75 Defence Space Challenges to be addressed by the private sector during DefExpo at Gandhinagar in October 2022.