Recently, in the wake of the pandemic, the training of the Earlier in March, ISRO revealed that the agency has slated to As part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the Vikram lander failed to make a soft-landing on the surface of the moon and ISRO lost contact with it just before the landing. Meanwhile, the four selected astronaut—Indian Air Force test pilots—are undergoing training for the maiden human mission in Russia. India’s existing space prowess and its ability to contribute its due and fair share of financial support will make it a welcome partner in any space alliance. Space is increasingly being seen as a treasure trove of precious minerals and also a place for future human habitation beyond the earth | Shutterstock The ambitious ‘Chandrayan-2’ in July 2019 came agonizingly close to being a spectacular success. Rural Development Various programmes are carried out by ISRO addressing the developmental priorities of the country for planning, monitoring and impact assessment viz. Thus by 2030 India will be a tech savvy country and a pioneer in research and development. In contrast to this, India accounts for a meager 3% of the global space industry today.  The amazing pace of new developments in space technology and its huge budgetary requirements are making even developed countries to collaborate with others.  These factors combined with the obvious legal tussle and intense struggle for a slice of the ‘space pie’ that lies ahead, is certain to leave space explorers’ like ISRO who operate alone, far behind. Just a few decades back this would have sounded as fantasy, but today it looks as if this time frame may actually be bettered. In 2017 ISRO set a world record by launching 104 satellites in a single rocket. Expecting students to run an AutoCAD simulation in their heads from the (often poorly drawn) blueprint on the chalkboard is the surest way to lose their involvement. However, there have been very encouraging developments recently, towards realizing the commercial potential of ISRO’s capabilities and permitting private players into Indian space industry. Worst population issue in the world. If COVID-19 effect continues further, we may have to revisit our plan.The final Gaganyaan mission will carry three Indian astronauts to space. Made with Adobe Premiere Clip. A Mars mission carrying 100 metric tons cargo in 2022 followed by a manned mission by 2024 are the immediate milestones of Elon Musk’s SpaceX plan which aims to create a self sustaining Mars city by 2050. Maharashtra's Lonar Lake Changes Colour to Baby Pink; Astounds ScientistsThe Indian space agency has already marked a niche in the space league nations through its numerous successful launches in the past few years. Establishment  of ‘NewSpace India Limited’ (NSIL) as the commercial arm of ISRO  in March 2019, ISRO’s recent vision statement to make India a ‘global Space hub’ in five years and the government’s announcement in June 2020 about setting up of ‘IN-SPACe’ (Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre), an autonomous agency under the Dept of Space as a separate vertical and paving the way for Indian private sector to commercially build rockets and satellites and provide launch services  auger well for Indian space industry. Despite India’s well recognized space capabilities, there has been no known endeavour by it beyond exploration for research, remote sensing and communication, into areas such as space tourism, space mining, building human habitat etc. US, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Euro Space Agency (ESA) and even a small country like Luxemburg which has 10 registered space mining companies, are already in the race. and fortnightly surface water spread data could be derived from satellite data. Just a few decades back this would have sounded as fantasy, but today it … I’ll list the negative side in 2050 as many are having positive response. Similarly, bringing back anything more than a few kilograms of samples from space to the Earth would be even more complex in terms of logistics. According to reports, the uncrewed mission is not among the scheduled launches for this year. While making fuel and water in space and its ‘in situ resource utilisation’ may pass the scrutiny, commercial exploitation of space through minerals mining, tourism, real estate etc may prove hugely contentious in terms of international legal framework for space. American astrophysicist  Neil Degrasse Tyson believes, “The first trillioners will be those who mine asteroids”. The “Main Asteroid Belt” is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, about 450 to 650 million Kilometers from earth, with million asteroids in it.