DST and DRDO institutes collaborate to bolster ground-based space situational awareness

New Delhi: In a strategic step to enhance India’s capabilities in ground-based Space Situational Awareness (SSA), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have joined hands through a new institutional collaboration.

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A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed on Wednesday between the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital—an autonomous institute under DST—and the Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun, a key laboratory of DRDO. The agreement was formalized by Dr. Manish Kumar Naja, Director of ARIES, and Dr. Ajay Kumar, Director of IRDE, at a ceremony held at IRDE headquarters in Dehradun.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. Brijesh Kumar and Dr. T. S. Kumar from ARIES; and Ruma Dhaka, Dr. Sudhir Khare, Dr. Manavendra Singh, Abhijit Chakraborty, and Bharat Ram Meena from IRDE. The agreement represents a strategic partnership between two key scientific institutions of Uttarakhand, with the goal of advancing objectives in space surveillance systems and ground-based astronomy.

The collaboration aims to leverage ARIES’s advanced astronomical facilities and scientific expertise in observational science to support the development of cutting-edge space surveillance and monitoring systems. ARIES is a leading research institute in the domains of astronomy, astrophysics, and atmospheric sciences, and operates world-class observational assets such as the 3.6-metre Devasthal Optical Telescope and the ST Radar system.

IRDE, on the other hand, brings its longstanding experience in designing and developing electro-optical surveillance systems for India’s armed forces across terrestrial, naval, airborne, and space-based platforms.

The partnership will focus on several key areas:

Utilization of ARIES’s observational infrastructure for tracking and monitoring space objects;

Joint development of electro-optical systems tailored for astronomical and SSA applications;

Development of advanced image processing and data analysis techniques, integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML);

Collaborative R&D, training, and capacity-building initiatives to foster knowledge exchange between the two institutions.

The close geographical proximity of ARIES and IRDE is expected to facilitate regular interaction, access to facilities, technical exchanges, and coordination of joint activities—further strengthening the collaboration and ensuring smoother implementation of shared objectives.

This collaboration marks another milestone in India's effort to create a robust ecosystem for SSA by bridging scientific research and strategic defence technologies.

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