Space Industry and SEDS
“But it is difficult to imagine Nepal diving into the space industry, I would even say it is impossible for a small, financially, and technologically poor country to even waste time, effort, and money on the space industry. Make more Civil engineers!” Now, this could be one of the many tea conversations we might have had every once in a while. Not for naught, it is a good thing that these conversations even happen, that give us opportunities to tie the loose ends of the conversation.
Space Industry
The first things that come to our minds when someone says the ‘Space Industry’ are rockets, massive satellites, launch pads, Elon Musk, Hollywood maybe, moon landing? American flag? If we think deep enough, we might start thinking about the cold war, maybe the thin trail of smoke (that’s vapour though) we see in the sky occasionally? We get a lot of pictures in our minds when we hear those words. And we associate the space industry with those because that has been the extent of our understanding.
Yet in that overwhelming album of images in our minds, we miss a few things that might have been a staple of our daily life but are not that heard or talked about.
“Have you ever heard of a satellite that weighs less than your daily grocery?” Wait, here is another good one, “Have you ever heard of a satellite that can fit in your pocket?” Sounds absurd right? “No big blasts of smoke? No wrapping with gold leaf? No astronaut suits? No hideous-looking masses of machinery? Are you telling me that there is a space industry with no rockets??”
A no but yes. Rockets are still required to send these to space because Japan is taking too much time building the space elevator, but the space industry isn’t all about rockets and flashy astronaut suits. There are various interdependent ecosystems in the space industry itself.
So, yes, it is very unlikely to see Nepal blasting off huge rockets and international space stations as of now, but we have a lot of other stuff to begin with and get ourselves familiarized with this industry that rules our present and our future.
SEDS
That segues us to the nub of this writing. SEDS stands for ‘Students for the Exploration and Development of Space’. The name is quite self-explanatory. The focus of this student organization is to promote space advocacy and exploration through student collaborations. It was established in 1980 by Peter Diamandis Scott Scharfman, Richard Sorkin, Robert D. Richards, and Todd B. Hawley. It has its headquarters in the MIT.
It is a chapter-based organization with its chapters in Canada, the US, UK, India, and other countries including Nepal. It has been awaring students and their influences directly and indirectly about the space industry and space exploration in an organizational way by organizing seminars and conferences with experienced people, engaging students in space-related projects, and much more. But how has it been working in Nepal and Nepali students?
SEDS-Nepal
SEDS-Nepal is the national SEDS chapter for Nepal. They have a proper administrative hierarchy of students and a faculty advisor to assist them both, administratively as well as technically. Apart from the boring stuff, SEDS-Nepal has contributed its fair share of space development in Nepal via nationally acknowledged projects such as Garuda, Nepal’s first-sounding rocket. SEDS-Nepal has been encouraging at the local level for the promotion of space awareness among students by establishing the SEDS chapters in schools and universities with the help of students.
That brings us to, us:
SEDS-KU
Apologies for falsely claiming the ‘SEDS’ part of the writing to be the core, this is where I wanted to make the connection of students with the space industry. Everything above was a pretext.
SEDS-KU was officially established on the 6th of September 2020, as an interdepartmental club in Kathmandu University, with the main purpose of fulfilling the motto of the SEDS organization and specifically to try and bring out space entrepreneurs. SEDS is a very fresh idea with fresh members. That sounds fresh and energetic, to an extent it is, but being ‘fresh’ also means new with no credentials. That also means ‘grind your bones till you are acknowledged’. Which has been good for the club. This need to be acknowledged and held seriously by students as well as the faculty has led the club to undertake some grandiose projects, some in making and some in the paper. But the grandiosity should not overlook the functionality and original motivation of the club is what we believe in.
Projects:
Lunar Rover: ‘Astra’ and ‘Lunar Scavengers’ Design project that participated in Singapore Space Challenge 2020/2021.
PicoHAB: Picohab is the preliminary phase test of the high-altitude balloon project “Udaya”. PicoHAB has been tested for flight and data retrieval while Udaya is still in progress.
Project Udaya: Project Udaya is an ambitious project where cansat with GPS, and atmospheric sensors such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, etc are to be used to gain and transfer the respective data to the ground station at KU in real-time. The completion of the project is expected to be by November 2022.
Rocketry: Testing and development of rocketry using COTS and locally available tools and equipment is feasible and with history on our side, Project Garuda which won the Nancy team spirits award in one of the most prestigious rocketry competitions, Spaceport America, we intend not just to repeat the history but innovate it further and send our own rocket in the upcoming year.
These are just the projects excluding all the events, talk shows and workshops which does not directly impact the industry but prepare the upcoming generation of enthusiasts aiming for the sky.
All these projects have a connection to the space industry and students all while being technologically feasible. It would be a waste to not get involved in this new sub-industry where everyone is starting from zero, including us. The technology is available to us, the community is encouraging for it needs innovation, and it is a perfect mine that we can dig before this too gets saturated. We still have a long way until Nepal becomes a space superpower but till then we can exploit the technologies and resources available to us and make something useful, something relevant, and something that keeps us in the game.
