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Panel discussion on USA's deep space engg excellence

I thank the American Center for inviting me to a panel discussion on USA’s engineering excellence that has made the USA the leader in deep space exploration. While NASA had its origin in Aeronautics, its pivot towards space exploration during the cold war era birthed the space industry.  Since then it has launched several lunar,mars,outerplanetary and deep space missions collecting invaluable data that has advanced humankind's understanding of the universe and essentially created astrophysics as a career option for some of the brightest minds in physics. 

Missions like voyager which were originally intended for a tour of outer planets — jupiter,saturn,uranus,neptune have far gone beyond their intended expedition, travelled billions of kms and have sent data on heliosphere that has directly led to projects like the SHIELD being developed in Boston University [1] 

Rockets often take the limelight in space projects but nearly every aspect of the program relies upon cutting edge engineering. The discussion highlighted the landing system used in Mars rover which was made from high performance synthetic Vectran fibers but that's just one component of thousands that work together to make a mission successful. 

The old voyager spacecraft travelling billions of kms to the edges of the solar system itself is a mind boggling feat but there are even more audacious missions that stretch the limits of possibility. Like the Parker solar probe that has flown dangerously close to the sun solving the mystery of Corona which puzzled scientists for so long— How come the solar corona ,a thin outermost layer of plasma, is a million degrees hotter than the photosphere that stays a blackbody at 5500K? 

The engineering of space instruments deployed closer to earth like the Hubble space telescope are no less extraordinary and much the same can be said of numerous radio telescopes that have been deployed all across earth. Without a doubt the engineers and scientists in the USA have achieved the most daring, most challenging goals that would have been considered impossible 70 years ago. The entire space industry rests on the foundation created by NASA. The USA has done the impossible. So what's next? 

In the immediate future the big ideas seem to revolve around sending spacecraft to replace aging voyager systems which, although will drift for all eternity, will eventually stop sending data back to earth as their power systems halt. 

Then there are talks about space data centers ,satellite constellations and space manufacturing. It's not exactly clear whether these ideas will be able to generate enough profit but they have been floated around and technological capability definitely exists to make them happen. 

Diplomatically space cooperation is gaining momentum. The USA is leading the effort with Artemis accords and predictably China has come up with its own initiative called International Lunar Research Station which has so far largely been ignored by the international community. 

Mr William Cammett ,the speaker and the space science and technology officer at the American Embassy in India shared the plans for US-India space dialogue in August that could unlock technology transfers for India and help it consolidate its space programs and defense initiatives. NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) was launched a year ago; perhaps more such partnership announcements would be forthcoming. 
Although the discussions were strictly technical in nature it is necessary to note geopolitical subtext. India has assumed the presidency of BRICS. A couple of days ago an energy meet was convened by the BRICS nations in gurugram [2]. The USA has on multiple occasions protested against India’s insistence on buying Russian oil. It is possible that non compliance would delay the conclusion of deals and hence technological transfers. 

Furthermore as China continues to deepen its investment in Africa ,the think tanks & policy makers in the USA are endeavoring  to counter the growing Chinese influence by re-invigorating their own outreach to African nations. Africa has a very ambitious space program all across the continent. Spacex is already deeply integrated with most African space agencies [3].Strictly from an economic & geopolitical point of view investment in Africa & LATAM would be far more profitable & secure. The USA may find it to be more practical to shift the immediate focus to Africa while continuing to engage with India under provisions outlined in frameworks like QUAD which include space agenda,along with critical minerals & telecom partnerships [4]. 

This also presents an opportunity to the brilliant scientists and engineers in India at ISRO ,DRDO & other exalted institutions like IISC & BARC to double their efforts & build upon the foundation that has been laid to propel India’s space sector to new heights using technology that is fully homegrown. This would meet the objectives of both India's multialigned foreign policy framework & the innate desire to become a self reliant nation as it approaches 100 years of independence. 

1 Exploring the Heliosphere: Insights from NASA’s SHIELD Project

https://akshatjiwannotes.blogspot.com/2026/05/exploring-heliosphere-insights-from.html

2 BRICS turns focus on energy security

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/renewable/brics-turns-focus-on-energy-security/132006183

3 Europe’s Space Strategy: Between Security and Commercial Reality

https://akshatjiwannotes.blogspot.com/2026/06/europes-space-strategy-between-security.html

4 Remarks on the space policy conference 2025

https://akshatjiwannotes.blogspot.com/2025/07/remarks-on-space-policy-conference-2025.html

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Materials science/International relations/Partnerships 

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