Space startup ties up with French forum

VISAKHAPATNAM: Taramandal, said to be the first-of-its-kind space startup in Andhra Pradesh, has emerged as the fourth company to achieve the rare feat from India to work closely with Paris Peace Forum (PPF). PPF is a French global initiative that calls for achieving sustainable use of outer space by 2030 by taking concrete actions to tackle the pressing challenge of space debris orbiting the earth.

Taramandal is currently working on developing low cost sustainable satellites and its subsystems and other critical space technologies to be launched in the low earth orbit. According to the founders, these will help address the issue of space debris. As these satellites may self-deorbit at the end of their lifespan, it will be advantageous in terms of avoiding space junk.

The space startup is cofounded by A Vineel Judson, Dr D.Rajesh, Dr M Gautam, T Neelakantasewarareddy and N Rama Jaya Lakshmi.

Speaking to ToI, Vineel Judson said there is growing evidence that the space debris and crowded orbits may even impact climate change crisis on Earth. “The junk poses a significant threat to spacecraft as collisions with even small pieces of debris can cause serious damage to it. This is especially concerning for manned spacecraft, as the risk of injury or loss of life is increased. In addition to this, space debris may also challenge the infrastructure such as communication and weather satellites, which are essential for modern life. More than 8,000 tonnes of debris is already there in space,” he added.

“Being a strong proponent of long-term space sustainability with its vision of achieving an immaculate orbit and enabling safer space operations, Taramandal takes pride in joining the "net zero space initiative" of the global platform Paris Peace Forum,” Judson added.

As reported by NASA in 2019, 41.3% of all small satellites launched failed or partially failed between 2000–2016. Of these small satellite missions, 24.2% were total mission failures. The launch vehicle failure only accounted for 6.1%, which means that the bulk of the failures happened with satellites in-orbit.

“ “Our vision at Taramandal is to have a clear orbit with a sustainable environment for satellites where all space assets are either reused or deorbited. This vision of ours will help private industry, research, and public institutions to flourish and make it possible for safer space travel,” they added.

The startup is currently incubated at A-Hub, the incubation centre of Andhra University.


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