For India, fundamental R&D on science is crucial: ISRO Chief Dr. Narayanan

With India making significant investments in the Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, the proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station (India’s own space station), and the Chandrayaan-series of Lunar exploration missions, the country must focus on fundamental Research and Development in the Science domain, said ISRO Chief Dr. V. Narayanan. Emphasising that even school students would question the rationale behind the government spending taxpayers’ money on such expensive, high-profile missions, he added that such spending can be justified only with focussed science experiments being carried out. He urged the Indian space science fraternity to review existing scientific literature and frame proper, unique experiments. The chief of the Indian space agency made these remarks during the formal announcement of the 23rd National Space Science Symposium (NSSS) that would be hosted by the North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) in 2026.

The NSSS is India’s flagship event for space science. Held once in two years, the event brings together experts from ISRO, academia, autonomous institutes, and research institutes.

Explaining the importance of the event, ISRO’s Scientific Secretary Ganesh Pillai said, NSSS is a key platform for researchers, scientists, and academicians. It spans multiple domains, including atmospheric science, near-earth space, the solar system, astronomy, and astrophysics. It covers all aspects of space science—from surface to cosmos.

At the event, new science discoveries are unveiled, tech advancements are discussed, and it is crucial for exchanging scientific results, he added. The scientific sessions at the NSSS will witness the unveiling of research data from ISRO’s space science and exploratory missions.

India is looking to make a huge investment and build our Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) that weighs 52 tonnes. Such initiatives would be justified only when we do meaningful and useful science. Further, he contemplated on the need for assigning an ISRO Project Director to oversee science experiments and concentrate exclusively on that domain.

“During my visits, I witnessed that foreign universities are doing a different class of science experiments, likewise, Indian laboratories need to give due importance to science,” he added. He said that science had to be a key focus area in India, just like routine activities such as satellite building for earth observation, communication, remote sensing, and building and launching rockets.

Referring to the Indian Aditya-L1 sun-study mission which reached its destination L1 point in early 2024, Dr. Narayanan mentioned that ISRO was releasing science data in tranches of over 5 terabytes (more than 5,000GB) each. He urged his fraternity that the science data and findings derived from Indian missions such as the Chandrayaan-series must not remain confined to the elite circles within academia and scientists, but must reach the villages of the country and the commoners. “Commoners know that Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon, but how many know that the mission found minerals in the lunar soil, measured the temperature variation there and also detected seismic activity on the moon?,” the ISRO Chief asked.

Recently, we sent our Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla to the Space Station. Sending him is one aspect—sending (rocket launch) is by a foreign nation, we (India) have paid money, with that expertise he will be sent safely, that is equivalent to a little more than aircraft travel, but what is the output? Of course, there is a confidence gaining, experience etc. But the main output is the seven science experiments being carried by Shukla.

Referring to the importance of Shukla’s experiments in space, Dr. Narayanan mentioned about how they would involve studies about the muscle system and their behaviour in the microgravity environment of space, and growth of seeds in the space environment, among others.