REFUELLING DYING SATELLITES

A Chennai company is making waves in the world of space tech startups

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

Imagine refuelling satellites in space. Two young men did. They took their proposal to a businessman-cum-scientist in Bengaluru. But, he closed their painstakingly made file and threw it back to them. He said: “Find a lucrative job and save your family. Do not spend time on unwanted things.” They walked out with their heads down. Even their family members scoffed at the idea—a fuel station in space—calling it a fantasy.

But, they dreamt on. A decade later, the duo met the scientist who had shown them the door at a tech event. He was now singing a different tune. “I thought you would not make it,” he said. “Now you have made it a reality. I realise it was not a fantasy.” In the intervening decade, the duo, Sakthikumar Ramachandran, 35, and Nikhil Balasubramanian, 30, had launched a startup—OrbitAID—based out of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and backed by the government of Tamil Nadu. They are now ready to take their dream to space.

There are thousands of satellites in orbit, more than 400 of them launched by ISRO. These satellites are usually designed to carry fuel for 15 years. After that they cannot keep their orbit position and start to drift. They slowly lose communication and become redundant, eventually turning to space debris. If these satellites can be refuelled in orbit, that would allow greater manoeuvrability and extend the life of a mission.