American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1 Strategic Perspectives and Technical Architecture Overview of Indian Space Exploration Missions Venkatesan Sundararajan Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The Indian Space Program has been geared towards the utilization of space capabilities for societal benefits. In so doing, it has formed a triad of telecommunications, remote sensing and meteorology missions for the past four decades since its inception. The 1990s witnessed indigenous development of medium and heavy lift launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV, and rapid national industrial growth through economic liberalization. These capabilities and a renewed global interest in lunar and planetary exploration formed the basis for Indian initiatives towards a sustainable space exploration framework. The successful launch of Chandrayaan-1, India‘s first deep space and lunar mission on October 22, 2008 and its ongoing high - resolution mapping by eleven scientific instruments, including those provided by international agencies heralds the beginning of Indian Space Exploration Program (ISEP). The newly evolving space exploration initiatives have broad political support and budget allocation. The ISEP consists of three distinct categories: (1) Space Science Missions (2) Lunar and Planetary Exploration (Orbiter/ Rover) Missions and (3) Human Spaceflight Program. This paper presents an overview of the space exploration missions being developed by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It provides a strategic framework to understand Indian space exploration perspectives and goals, technical architecture and scientific objectives. An economic analysis is also carried out to evaluate the various missions and benefits of international cooperation. I. INTRODUCTION ndian space exploration missions are a newly emerging trend as part of the primarily civilian application oriented program of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The evolving space exploration program is a culmination of the growth of Indian launchers with medium-heavy lift capability, maturation of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellite Bus development, technology for thermal management and space power systems beyond Earth‘s orbit, development of deep space communication network, and interest of the Indian scientific community with participation of Indian institutes in the development of scientific instruments. Steady growth of the Indian economy since the 1990s through rapid industrialization and integration with the global economy by economic liberalization has played a significant role in India‘s quest for greater role in scientific pursuits of grand scale including in achieving space exploration goals. The international space exploration scenario is also evolving towards global collaboration led by NASA and ESA. The Asian space race among the space agencies of Japan, China and India is an underlying factor in the context of space policy goals as space exploration ventures are seen as a showcase to the world community of the national capabilities in technology, science, political stability and space prowess. The founding vision of the Indian Space Program (ISP), which forms the guiding principle for ISRO, has been the exploitation of space for Earth observation through self-reliant development in satellites, launch vehicles and civilian applications for the triad of telecommunications, remote-sensing and meteorology. 1 Development of national industrial capacity and technical expertise, promotion of national space science and research, and pursuit of scientific knowledge with international collaboration have been a direct result of that vision. Commercial economic benefits derived from ISP through sale of remote sensing data to private sector and foreign governments, opportunities to launch small/ medium satellites and payloads for foreign agencies and institutes have been a recent but growing trend. The emerging Indian Space Exploration Program (ISEP) is founded on the original vision of ISP but is also reflective of the growing space capabilities of ISRO, political patronage through growing government budget allocation commensurate with India‘s standing in the world as a major player in global economy, industry and technical workforce. The rapid rise of China as a major space power with capabilities in the entire spectrum of space exploitation including human spaceflight is also a key ingredient in the evolution of the Indian Space Policy. A significant element of the ISEP is the emphasis on international cooperation that is complementary but of added value to the particular national mission. Chandrayaan-1, India‘s first deep space mission, is evident to that principle as it carried six international instruments in addition to the Indian scientific instruments suite and Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of both scientific and political significance. The evolution and importance of ISEP will continue to grow both within the ISP and in global space exploration missions in the early decades of the 21 st Century. I 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition 4 - 7 January 2010, Orlando, Florida AIAA 2010-973 Copyright © 2010 by Venkatesan Sundararajan. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.