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The Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) A Rajarajan revealed during the Aryabhata Utsav that the upper stage of ISRO’s newest and smallest rocket, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle was equipped with communications and power generation gear to host payloads after deploying the passenger satellites. The hardware has been named the SSLV Module for in-LEO Experiment (SMILE), which is similar to the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) on the PSLV workhorse rocket. This POEM platform has proven to be an incredible success, providing free access to space to demonstrate the technology developed by academic institutions, New Space startups, private research labs, and ISRO’s own facilities across the country.
The existence of the platform was revealed to the general public by a call for proposals for hosted payloads back in June, by the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), the single-window clearing agency for all space-based activities from India. We now have a render of what the orbital platform looks like. A total of four POEM platforms have flown so far, with the number of hosted payloads increasing in each flight. A total of 24 payloads were flown on the POEM platform, that also allows for conducting microgravity experiments without a space station. This ‘Jugaad’ by ISRO officials allows for the sustainable use of outer space and reduces space debris.
Typically, the upper stages of rockets are discarded after use, orbiting the Earth as space debris. Over time, gravity wins over again, and these upper stages slowly drift back into the atmosphere and burn up. By equipping the upper stage with solar panels to generate electricity, and communications gear to relay data to ground stations, ISRO is providing a low-cost orbital platform for demonstrating novel technologies developed in India. The SSLV is ISRO’s smallest rocket and is designed for launching small satellites. The SMILE platform is expected to be ass successful as POEM. Agnikul Cosmos is also planning to use the upper stage of its rocket as a satellite to reduce space debris and expand its offerings to customers. ISRO produces the lowest amount of orbital debris among all the major spacefaring nations.
