Twin Meteor Showers to Illuminate Global Skies on July 29–30

Two meteor showers — Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids — will peak together, offering a rare double feature of shooting stars visible across the globe.

What to Expect

• Combined meteor rate: Up to 25 meteors per hour
• Best viewing time: Midnight to 3 a.m., local time
• Moon phase: Nearly moonless night for optimal visibility
• Visibility: Best in Southern Hemisphere, but visible worldwide

Meet the Showers

Meteor Shower	Origin Comet	Meteor Traits	Peak Activity
Southern Delta Aquariids	96P/Machholz	Fast, faint streaks	July 29–31
Alpha Capricornids	169P/NEAT	Slow, bright fireballs (often colorful)	July 29–30

Viewing Tips

• Look southward in the sky, especially from rural or dark-sky locations
• No equipment needed — just your eyes and patience
• Avoid city lights and let your eyes adjust for 20–30 minutes
• Recline comfortably and bring warm clothes or snacks

Countries with Best Naked-Eye Visibility

Best Visibility Zones

• Southern Hemisphere: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Brazil
• Southern Latitudes (Northern Hemisphere): India, Mexico, Southern U.S. (Texas, Florida), Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece), Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia)

Also Visible (Lower Meteor Rates)

• Northern Hemisphere: United States (northern states), Canada, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan

🇮🇳 India-Specific Viewing

• Excellent visibility across India, especially in rural areas
• Best times: 3–4 AM and 7–8 PM on July 29–30
• Look toward the southern horizon, near the constellation Aquarius

Bonus: Perseids Incoming

• The Perseid meteor shower will peak around August 12
• July and August are prime months for stargazing

NASA Supported Reality Show 'Space Hero' inks Asia Partnership Deal With One Digital Entertainment

The reality show will send a civilian into space for a 6-day mission orbiting Earth and synching with the ISS

MUMBAI, India, March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TDGA Holdings Ltd., the UK-based media company founded by Thomas Reemer and Deborah Sass and led by former News Corp Europe chief, Marty Pompadur announces its exclusive partnership with industry veterans and Asia's leading digital media conglomerate, One Digital Entertainment today.

With this partnership, One Digital Entertainment is tasked with strategically building the brand 'Space Hero' through product strategy, regional development, media alliances and brand marketing for the world's first ever global casting show, where contestants compete for a trip into space exclusively for the territories of India, South East Asia and MENA.

Space Hero will be the World's first global casting show to send a civilian into space as part of a $155million 6-day mission orbiting Earth and synching with the ISS. It is a first-of-its-kind, global media company that unites citizens around the World and inspires community, collaboration and innovation here on Earth; through a biennial competition where people from all walks of life have the chance to compete and select one of their peers for a mission to space. Through interactive, immersive, produced and user-generated content, the Space Hero platform encourages participants and fans to be inspired by the wonder of space, to create change at home.

The reality show will commence with 24 contestants from around the world, twelve men and twelve women, twelve from emerging countries and twelve from developed countries. They will be housed in the Space Village, a future-facing sustainable experience, but with space age technologies and the experiential feel of space. The show will document their lives as they prepare to compete for the venture into space on the free-flyer mission. On the show, the contestants will have their emotional, mental and physical strength tested, similar to how astronauts train before a flight. While in the Space Village, the 'Space Hero' house, activities, challenges and voting will narrow down the list of candidates until only one person remains.

The entire mission will be live streamed 24*7 and live interactions with the participants are possible. The show is expected to air in 2023, and anyone over the age of 18 with a basic level of English can apply for the competition. Space Hero is planning 15 seasons over the next 30 years, eventually flying beyond the ISS, to the Moon and Mars. The Space Hero project is supported by over 70 space agencies & space institutions globally, plus over 55 private Space companies from around the world. On April 12, 2021, marking the 60th anniversary of the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, Space Hero signed a Space Act Agreement(SAA) with NASA; becoming the first media company to do so in decades.

"We are glad to have partnered with One Digital Entertainment who shall bring in their robust expertise for the territories of South East Asia, India and MENA regions. These territories have very high online participation for some of the biggest global events and we are excited to further expand our operations, in order to build various business and marketing synergies via our partners One Digital Entertainment," says Thomas Reemer, Creator and Founding Partner, Space Hero.

"Space travel has been a dream for millions for many decades and Space Hero is making that dream a reality; giving the common man an opportunity to engage with space. We are thrilled to join hands with Space Hero to forefront its' trajectory within the Asian communities," says Shabir Momin, Managing Director & Co-Founder, One Digital Entertainment.

"The opportunity of space exploration is not limited to specific citizens, countries or for defined income groups any more. Space is one of the most inaccessible industries in the world. Space Hero is giving you that access! With our mission to make Space Hero a truly global platform that is united by people from different countries and of different colour, creed and race, the partnership with One Digital Entertainment solidifies our commitments towards the same," says Deborah Sass, Founding Partner and Co-CEO, Space Hero.

"It is indeed a proud moment as this partnership marks Space Hero's maiden partnership in Asian region. We aspire to strengthen Space Hero's long-term vision with strategic and unique partnerships within the media gamut. Space Hero is setting benchmarks in the space media business, and we are excited to use our experience in the various verticals to bring these projects to a global audience," says Gurpreet Singh, COO & Co-Founder, One Digital Entertainment.

One Digital Entertainment is Asia's leading digital media, technology and creator network which specializes in many verticals of content and digital media across music, food, comedy, film, fashion and lifestyle domains and works with some beacon creators and platforms like MostlySane, Badshah, Sidhu Moosewala, Yuvraj Singh, CarryMinati, Alia Bhatt, Sanjeev Kapoor, Sony Pictures, Google, Facebook, Spotify and the likes. The company currently has an unbeaten repertoire of managing a whopping 6000+ creators and ten billion watched minutes of content every month on social media. In recent times the company has acquired Blush, Being Indian aside of significant stakes in Digital2 Sports Pte Ltd & Instant Bollywood. The company has also launched India's first creator-driven merchandise marketplace MerchBay and a dedicated podcast brand PodOne.

Indian Scientists Discover New Exoplanet Bigger Than Jupiter and 1.5 Times the Mass of the Sun

Representational Image

Scientists in India working at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, has discovered a new planet outside our solar system (thus an Exoplanet), which is orbiting too close to an evolved or aging star with a mass of 1.5 times that of our Sun and located 725 light years away. 

The discovery of the new exoplanet has been made by PRL's Exoplanet Research and Study Group led by Professor Abhijit Chakraborty. ISRO scientists including colleagues from Europe and America, were also involved in this.

According to ISRO, this newly discovered star-planet system is a very unique - the planet orbits the host star in just 3.2 days, thus placing it very-very close to the star at a distance of 0.05 AU (roughly one-tenth the distance between Sun and Mercury).There are less than 10 such close-in systems known among the zoo of exoplanets known so far.

The newly discovered exoplanet’s mass is found to be bigger than Jupiter, largest planet of our solar system. The exoplanet, known as TOI 1789b or HD 82139b, is 70% and size about 1.4 times that of the Jupiter.

Artistic impression of the TOI-1789 star-planet system, along with characteristics of planet
[Image ~ ISRO]

The exoplanet's close proximity to its host star makes it extremely hot with a surface temperature reaching up to 2000 K (approx. 1727 degree Celsius), and hence an inflated radius, making it one of the lowest density planets known (density of 0.31 gram per cc). Such close-in exoplanets around stars (with distance less than 0.1 AU) with masses between 0.25 to a few Jupiter mass are called "Hot-Jupiters". 

The discovery is made using PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search (PARAS) optical fiber-fed spectrograph, the first of its kind in India, on the 1.2 metre Telescope of PRL at its Mt. Abu Observatory.

This is the second exoplanet discovered by PRL scientists using PARAS at 1.2 m Mt. Abu telescope; the first exoplanet K2-236b, a sub-Saturn size at 600 light-years away, was discovered in 2018. 

Founded in 1947 by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the Physical Research Laboratory ( PRL ) is known as the cradle of Space Sciences in India. As a unit of Department of Space, Government of India, PRL carries out fundamental research in selected areas of Physics, Space & Atmospheric Sciences, Astronomy, Astrophysics & Solar Physics, and Planetary & Geo-Sciences.

This discovery work has been published in the refereed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, titled "Discovery of an inflated hot Jupiter around a slightly evolved star TOI-1789”, authored by Akanksha Khandelwal, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Abhijit Chakraborty, Rishikesh Sharma, Eike W Guenther, Carina M Persson, Malcolm Fridlund, Artie P Hatzes, Neelam J S S V Prasad, Massimiliano Esposito, Sireesha Chamarthi, Ashirbad Nayak, Dishendra, Steve B Howell Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Published: 23 October, 2021 https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stab2970/6409152 

India's 1st Space Museum to Open in Kolkata in January

Representative Image

Next year i.e. 2022 will be the 75th year of India's independence and on this occasion of platinum jubilee of India's Independence, the country's first space museum is being launched in Kolkata. The first of its kind space-based museum will open its doors for the general public in January, next year. The museum could have been launched by the end of this year but the work of the same was occasionally halted due to the Covid situation.

The space museum is being built on one floor of a 5-storey building being constructed on a part of  Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP) 's 36,000-square-foot land on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, a stone's throw from the Jyotirindra Nandi metro station. Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP) is an Indian non-profit research organisation dedicated to carrying out advanced research in astronomy, astrophysics and space science. It is a sister institute of the University of Calcutta.

The West Bengal government has provided Rs 4 million for the construction of the museum land and its infrastructure.

Earlier in late last month, the government has announced that it will be setting up Science Museums across the country to promote scientific temper, particularly among children and the younger generation. 

Speaking to Anandabazar Online, Sandeep Chakraborty, a professor of astronomy at the Indian Center for Space Physics (ICSP) in Kolkata, said that he has spent part of his earnings and savings to build the first space museum in India to procure rare, precious parts of the body of the moon, rare rocks of Mars and various asteroids scattered around the earth at different times.

The upcoming space museum in Kolkata will be full of space objects. Sandeep has mentioned a few special ones in his collection. One of them is a part of the rock of Mars, which crashed in 2016 in North-West Africa. Sandeep collected the part weighing 5.6 grams of that rock. One of the components is oxides of iron and titanium. 

The museum also houses a huge meteorite that struck 50,000 years ago in the Arizona desert of America. The meteorite struck a huge hole in the Arizona.

The museum also houses the rock fragments of the moon that hit Mali in Africa in 2016. Weighing 111 grams, the moon rock's body is made of materials like iron, nickel, aluminum.

Recently, in an addition to museums in the country, state government of Meghalaya is planning to set up a Museum on Climate Change to sensitize people and to inspire action on the climate crisis through this museum.

News Source - anandabazar.com

Satellites May Start Malfunctioning as Earth's Magnetic Field Weakens

Earth’s magnetic field is gradually weakening which is resulting in technical disturbances in some satellites orbiting the Earth. According to the reports, a rapid shrink has been observed in the South Atlantic Anomaly. The 'South Atlantic Anomaly' (SAA) is referred to the behaviour of Earth's Geo-Magnetic field in an area between Africa and South America.

Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average, said the European Space Agency (ESA). A large and rapid shrink has been observed in SAA region over the past 50 years just as the area itself has grown and moved westward.

The weakening of the magnetic field is also causing technical difficulties for the satellites and spacecrafts orbiting the planet.

The study, conducted between 1970 and 2020, said that the magnetic field weakened considerably in a large region stretching from Africa to South America, known as the 'South Atlantic Anomaly'. This area has grown and moved westward at a rate of around 20km per year.

The reason for the reducing magnetic field is not entirely known and researchers/scientists are using Swarm constellation of ESA and international consortium called "Swarm Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC)" to improve their understating of this area and the anomaly. Swarm is a ESA's mission to study the Earth's magnetic field.

An ESA article on the matter, said -

Earth’s magnetic field is vital to life on our planet. It is a complex and dynamic force that protects us from cosmic radiation and charged particles from the Sun. The magnetic field is largely generated by an ocean of superheated, swirling liquid iron that makes up the outer core around 3000 km beneath our feet. Acting as a spinning conductor in a bicycle dynamo, it creates electrical currents, which in turn, generate our continuously changing electromagnetic field.

In the Video below, which is made available by ESA, shows the dots on the map that indicate individual events when Swarm instruments registered the impact of radiation from April 2014 to August 2019. The background is the magnetic field strength at the satellite altitude of 450 km.



"It has been speculated whether the current weakening of the field is a sign that Earth is heading for an eminent pole reversal – in which the north and south magnetic poles switch places. Such events have occurred many times throughout the planet’s history and even though we are long overdue by the average rate at which these reversals take place (roughly every 250 000 years), the intensity dip in the South Atlantic occurring now is well within what is considered normal levels of fluctuations," said ESA article.

Currently, there is no reason to panic, at least at surface level. However, satellites and other spacecraft flying through the SAA area are more likely to experience technical malfunctions as the magnetic field is weaker in this region, so charged particles can penetrate the altitudes of low-Earth orbit satellites, said the ESA.

[caption id="attachment_145792" align="alignright" width="289"] Front of Swarm satellite[/caption]

Meanwhile, magnetic field observations from Swarm satellites are providing new insights into the scarcely understood processes of Earth’s interior. The Swarm satellites can identify and measure the the various magnetic signals that combine to make up the Earth's magnetic field.In the last five years, a second centre of minimum intensity has developed towards southwest of Africa. Researchers believe that this could mean that the anomaly can split into two separate cells.

NASA names An Asteroid after Indian Legendary Singer Pandit Jasraj

An Asteroid aka minor planet bearing the alphanumeric name 2006VP32 (number 300128), discovered in November in 2006, has been christened 'Panditjasraj' after Indian legendary classical singer Pandit Jasraj. The number assigned to the asteroid, 300128, is Pandit Jasraj's birth date in reverse.

The announcement was made by the US space agency NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on September 23. "Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj is an exponent of Indian classical vocal music... His distinctive voice traverses a remarkable four-and-a-half octaves," NASA mentioned.

The naming of the asteroid has been approved by International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The asteroid, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter in a region called the asteroid main belt, was discovered in 2006 by the Mount Lemmom Observatory in Arizona. It is estimated that millions of irregular and spherical objects of varying sizes, called either asteroids or minor planets, can be found in this region.

Panditjasraj - a Minor #PLANET

Pandit Jasraj has been bestowed with a surreal, rare & a Universal honour from International Astronomical Union @IAU_org
Minor Planet 2006 VP32 (No. 300128) discovered on 11th November 2006 has been named as ‘Panditjasraj’ pic.twitter.com/HcqbnRXFZs

— Pandit Jasraj Fans (@ptjasrajfans) September 29, 2019

Notably, as of September'19, there are 5,41,131 numbered asteroids of a total of 7,97,078 observed bodies, with the rest being unnumbered minor planets.

Pandit Jasraj is the first Indian classical musician to be bestowed with such honour. Other classical musicians to have /asteroids/minor planets named after them include Mozart, Beethoven and Luciano Pavarotti.

Born in 1930 in British Punjab, Pandit Jasraj is associated with the Mewati gharana of Hindustani classical music. He has received honours like the Padma Vibhushan and Sangeet Natak Academi Award, and is known for being a mentor to many well-known musicians.

Meanwhile, Scientists of India's Public Outreach and Education Committee of Astronomical Society of India (ASI-POEC) were unaware of the development, and said neither did IAU officially approach Indian Astronomical community to seek any inputs nor this process bestows any unique honour, reported Hindustan Times.

“IUA gives away the rights to name non-interesting minor planets to a clutch of private companies, largely 10 years after they are discovered, where individuals can name these astronomical bodies at a cost. In this case, there’s 90% chance that a fan named the minor planet after Pandit Jasraj for a price," said Aniket Sule, Chair, ASI-POEC to Hindustan Times.

Via ~ The Hindu

NASA to Allow Private Firms to Buy Time & Space on the Space Station ISS

The U.S. space agency NASA has announced that it will soon open up parts of the International Space Station (ISS) to more commercial opportunities, allowing companies unprecedented use of the space station’s facilities, including filming commercials or movies against the backdrop of space, reported The Verge.

Once implemented, this will allow private firms across the globe to use ISS for for-profit activities including marketing, advertising, off-Earth manufacturing, and even "Space Tourism".

"We're enabling up to two commercial flights with private astronauts per year," said NASA's ISS Deputy Director, Robyn Gatens. "So, depending on how many seats they want to carry, that would be a dozen or so private astronauts potentially per year on the International Space Station."

Gatens then added, "Private astronauts from other countries can fly through a US entity". That means ISS passenger-guests do not need to hold a US passport or hail from a space-faring nation. They do need to book their training, their ride and their up-to-30-day stay through an American space carrier."

It is to be noted that the space station 'ISS' does not solely belongs to NASA or the U.S. but by four other countries -- Russia, the European Partner, Japan and Canada - who are owners of their respective parts of ISS. As ISS is an assembled entity made up of a number of parts that belong to different countries and NASA would open up the part that is owned by it and not others'.

This move from NASA comes within a month after US billionaire Jeff Bezos unveiled a spacecraft named "Blue Moon", which will land on lunar surface by 2024. The Bezos-founded firm Blue Origin was said to be working on Blue Moon spacecraft for the last three years.

Earlier this year, the chief of Indian space agency ISRO, A S Kiran Kumar, had said that he believes that India has capability, technology and infrastructure to develop its own space station but it needs approval from the government to work on the long-term plan.

Big Opportunity for Startups as ISRO to Outsource Satellite Launch Vehicles

Indian space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has always been a boon in disguise for tech startups in the country. From having 17 million gigabytes of precious geo-spatial data to opening up its indigenous technology of lithium-ion batteries to local startups, ISRO now no longer an introvert government agency as it used to be. It now poses a great opportunities for companies especially startup ventures to make use of space agency's offerings, which not just have business value attached to it but also carry one or more social value proposition.

In a latest from ISRO, the state-run space agency and its commercial wing, Antrix Corporation, have just announced that they are willing to outsource manufacturing of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) so that ISRO could focus on its most ambitious human space programme called Gaganyaan.

In an interview to news agency IANS, Rakesh Sasibhushan, who is Antrix Chairman & Managing Director, said, "There is big money to make in the space business for Indian corporates. We do not mind whether it is Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis or someone else, as there is no dearth of big corporates in India to invest in the space industry."

A week ago, ISRO also held discussions with a consortium of industries regarding PSLV industrialization with the objective of easing ISRO to focus on Gaganyaan programme and its research & development activities. Big business houses such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Larsen & Tubro and Godrej were among those who took part in the discussions.

According to Sasibhushan, Indian space business has driven solely by the ISRO as India Inc was not looking at space as a business because it does not possess much business or money generating propositions. But now everything is poised to change as ISRO's commercial arm is all set to open up its space-based business activities for private players. Moreover, the scientific milestones achieved by ISRO have also created an atmosphere of excitement in Indian industry, especially the aerospace companies domain, who is willing to expand their business in Space segment due to the fairly large commonalities in these two areas.

Also Read - ISRO To Take On SpaceX With Its Own Smart and Reusable Rockets

"As ISRO’s programmes (launches and satellites) are primarily meant for societal and the country’s needs in the civilian and defence sectors, the spare capacity is small for commercial needs. We hope the private industry will come forward to drive the commercial space and grow the business." said Sasibhushan.

The small satellite service was a US$18 billion market growing at 2-3 per cent annually and ISRO is looking at 50-60 launch vehicles per year, said Sasibhushan, adding that ISRO, through Atrix, is looking at a revenue of around Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,000 crore per year.

Just two months back, ISR signed a deal with Bangalore-based startup Alpha Design and a consortium of six small and medium-sized enterprises, which will assemble, integrate and test ISRO's independent regional navigation satellites aka IRNSS satellites.

Last year, ISRO reached a significant milestone with 158 missions including 62 launch vehicles and 90 satellites.

According to a recently released report, the Space industry is valued at whopping $360 billion in 2018 and projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% to value $558 billion by 2026.

Demand for nano-satellites and re-usable launch vehicle systems is anticipated to be driven by the massive investment made by countries like US, China, Russia and the European Union in the development of next generation satellite systems and the large scale procurement of such systems by countries like Saudi Arabia, India, Japan and South Korea. The United States is the largest spender in the domain with China, European Union, India, Russia, Japan and South Korea anticipated accounting for the bulk of spending.

News sourced from Economic Times.

[Top Image - Aventure.ac.in]

ISRO Will Make SpaceTech As New Frontier for Indian Entrepreneurs and Startups

In the near future, we might see space technology opening new frontier for Indian entrepreneurs and startups, according to a statement made by ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar.

Speaking at the recently concluded IIMA’s Red Brick Summit (RBS), Kumar said that there are tremendous opportunities opening up with the fast-evolving technology, and there is growing scope for collaboration between public and private sectors.

Kumar further revealed that currently there is a huge demand for location-based services and geospatial technology for various applications such as vehicle tracking.

ISRO provides data and computational facilities from its centres such as Hyderabad for geospatial data, and Ahmedabad for weather-related data. While there are inputs available in the form of data, this informations needs to be explored by entrepreneurs for coming up with innovative solutions.

Kumar believes that opportunities can be conceived through alternate applications on the basis of the hardware being developed by ISRO. Giving the example of a Bengaluru company developing a new thruster technology for ISRO, Kumar mentions that entrepreneurs can even consider solving a particular problem by inventing suitable technology.

Space technology is technology developed by space science or the aerospace industry for use in spaceflight, satellites, or space exploration. Space technology includes spacecraft, satellites, space stations, and support infrastructure, equipment, and procedures.

Kumar also used the platform to discuss the role management students are capable of playing in space technology. According to him, management students can make their place in the sector by following two main paths: they can enter the technology development field and provide solutions to ISRO in terms of launch vehicles, satellites, etc; or make use of the already developed technology to provide it to the consumers.

Kumar firmly opinions that the younger generation of the country is more fearless than its predecessors and is always up for a challenge. He said, "Globally, the situation is changing fast and there are opportunities in research and development, as space exploration is the new frontier."

While presenting at the conference, Kumar took the attendees through India's journey into space through the various missions executed by the country and their outcomes. He also shared that the highly publicised Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) can now be considered as a hit, as it completed 1,000 days in the Mars orbit in June this year. He also highlighted that successful satellite launch vehicles such as PSLV and GSLV show us how India’s space technology has evolved over the years and the potential the country holds.

This development was first reported in The Times of India.

Startups Could Make Millions Using ISRO’s Data

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is giving Indian entrepreneurs an opportunity to utilise ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre's (NRSC) 17 million GB of geo-spatial data collected through a series of its earth-mapping satellites in order to launch app-based startups and make millions by providing consultative services to their respective users.

Geospatial data basically refers to information about physical objects (in terms of agricultural information, land, water resources, crops etc) that can be represented in a geographic coordinate system by numerical values. These data have been procured by making use of 21 remote sensing satellites till date- the IRS-1A satellite, which launched on March 17, 1988 was the first one to be launched and the Resourcesat-2A, which launched on December 7 last year was the last one.

The data collected from Indian Remote Sensing satellites is utilised for a number of applications of resources survey and management under the country's National Natural Resources Management System. These applications include ISRO disaster management support programme; space-based inputs for decentralised planning; 1992 initiated integrated mission for sustainable development for generating locale-specific prescriptions for integrated land and water resources development in 174 districts; drought monitoring and assessment based on vegetation condition; biodiversity characterisations at landscape level; space-based inputs for decentralised planning; pre-harvest crop area and production estimation of major crops; coastal studies; national urban information system; flood risk zone mapping and flood damage assessment; hydro-geomorphologic maps for locating underground water resources for drilling wells; land-use and land cover mapping; mineral prospecting; irrigation command area status monitoring; urban planning; mineral prospecting; snow-melt run-off estimates for planning water use in downstream projects; forest survey; wetland mapping; and environmental impact analysis.

In a statement given by Dr YVN Krishna Murthy, director, NRSC, to Bangalore Mirror at the recent held 104th Indian Science Congress in Tirupati, he had said that they have been successful in gathering 17 million gigabytes (or 17 petabytes as 1 petabyte is 1000000 gigabytes) of geospatial data. According to him, this 17 million GB figure can be expected to cross well past 50 million GB in a period of next five years, courtesy a constellation of satellites being added by ISRO in the space to map India.

According to Mr. Murthy, the 17 million GB geo-spatial data holds massive scope for startups. He said, with the passage of time, the cost of technology will come down while its scope will only increase.

So, if you're a budding entrepreneur, then this is a million dollar opportunity definitely worth considering.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]