New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) Union MoS for Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said Chandrayaan-3 mission is attracting wider international collaborations for India.
The Minister was speaking after a high-level Mauritius delegation led by Minister for Information Technology, Communication and Innovation (MITCI), Darsanand Deepak Balgobin called on him here to discuss the proposal for a Joint India-Mauritius Satellite.
India and Mauritius have also agreed to utilize ISRO’s ground station in Mauritius to offer support to third party missions.
By signing up the Artemis Accords during the landmark visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, India has demonstrated its capability to collaborate in the space sector with other nations of the world as an equal partner, Dr Singh said.
Balgobin earlier visited ISRO facilities in Bengaluru on August 17. ISRO presented technical details and application potentials of the proposed India – Mauritius joint satellite to the Minister.
The two Ministers agreed on expanding the scope of ISRO’s Ground Station set up in Mauritius to include third party missions including the European Space Agency and an amendment to the existing MoU is planned to be signed to facilitate such collaboration.
Mauritius has hosted ISRO’s ground station for tracking satellite and launch vehicles for more than 3 decades and currently this ground station is continuously manned with two antennas (of 11 m diameter) operated in Mauritius.
Dr Singh said India has supported Mauritius by establishing a remote sensing centre in 1999 and also by providing satellite data pertaining to Mauritius territory and officials from Mauritius have benefited from the training courses offered by Indian institutes on space technology applications.
Dr Singh and Balgobin also discussed areas like space cooperation through: (i) sharing of earth observation satellite data; (ii) Developing an ‘India-Mauritius space portal’ with satellite data, geospatial layers and value-added services pertaining to Mauritius; (iii) Initiating discussion for space industry level collaboration.
