Mauritius and India will reinforce their collaboration in the field of space exploration and research for the joint development of a micro satellite. In this context, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed, yesterday afternoon, between the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in presence of the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr V. Muraleedharan, the Minister of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, Mr Darsanand Balgobin, and other personalities.
Signatories were the High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, Mrs K. Nandini Singla, and the Chairperson of the MRIC, Dr K. S. Sukon. The MoU highlights the modalities for this collaboration and the roles and responsibilities for both counterparts.
In his address, the ICT Minister underscored that the signing of the MoU with the ISRO is a major landmark for the Mauritius Space Adventure. He expressed gratitude to the Indian Government for fully supporting the project which is one among the various evidences of the partnership between Mauritius and India and their mutual commitment to further collaborate.
He recalled that both Mauritius and India, he pointed out, have also partnered within the framework of regional organisations such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association to promote the peaceful use of outer space for the development of the Indian Ocean region. These collaborations demonstrate India’s commitment to assisting Mauritius in harnessing the benefits of space technology, indicated the Minister.
For his part, Mr Muraleedharan highlighted that the signing of the MoU represents a historic moment for strengthening Mauritius-India relations as we embark on the jointly developped satellite project.
He recalled that since the visit of the Indian External Affairs Minister, Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, to Mauritius in February 2021, the MRIC and ISRO have been working meticulously for the joint initiative. The satellite, he indicated, will be a Multispectral imager that will assist in earth observation applications relating to agriculture, forestry, ecosystem, weather forecast and ocean levels.
India, stated Minister Muraleedharan, is now a global space leader with its highly successful missions that will benefit all mankind. The IRSO, he indicated, has launched more than 380 foreign satellite so far while underlining that the India space economy is projected grow by USD 40 billion by 2040.
He expressed confidence that the MoU will pave the way for other ventures, arouse scientific curiosity and encourage the youth especially more girls to take up STEM subjects.
More on the Memorandum of Understanding
The Government of India will design, assemble, and integrate, test, launch, deploy and control and operate a satellite for Mauritius. Once completed, the satellite will be launched by ISRO, and the operation in orbit will be jointly carried out by ISRO and MRIC using the MRIC Ground Station.
Under the MoU, MRIC engineers will also benefit from free training at ISRO in India where they will closely collaborate with ISRO engineers to develop the satellite platform, associated systems, and the primary payload. The MRIC engineers will also participate in milestone reviews and AIT (Assembly, Integration and Testing) activities of the satellite Platform along with the ISRO team to get hands on experience.
The overall duration of the project, from signature of the MoU to the launching of the satellite in space, is estimated to be around 15 months. ISRO and MRIC will jointly work towards registering the joint Satellite as a space object in the UNOOSA Space Object Registry and ensuring the registration of the satellite frequencies with the International Telecommunication Union.
