Dr. Chaitanya Giri is the Gateway House Fellow of Space and Ocean Studies Programme. His present research focuses aquapolitics and astropolitics, the new-age techno-geostrategy, the space and marine industrial complex, and the science of space exploration. Prior to Gateway House, Dr. Giri has worked as planetary and astromaterials scientist for nearly a decade. He was affiliated to the Earth-Life Science Institute at Tokyo Institute of Technology, the Geophysical Laboratory at Carnegie Institution for Science, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center as an ELSI Origins Network Fellow. He was earlier an International Max Planck Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany and the University of Nice in France. Dr. Giri was also a scientific crew member of the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. He is a recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the 2014 Dieter Rampacher Prize of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Science, Germany and the 2016-2018 ELSI Origins Network Fellowship by the John Templeton Foundation, USA to name a few.
Expertise
Geo- and Space Strategy, Technology Forecasting, Space Exploration, Space Advocacy, Science
On his visit to the Russian Far East this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured Russia’s assistance in training India’s human spaceflight crew ahead of the launch of Gaganyaan in 2021-2022. French assistance for India has come in the form of its specialised knowledge of space medicine. Gaganyaan has thus become an India-Russia-France megaproject, a symbol of India’s futuristic space diplomacy
Chandrayaan-2’s postponed launch is no cause for disappointment. It gives India a chance to draw in the skills of the private sector to accelerate heavy-lift rocket manufacturing
The United Nations’ 2015 Paris Agreement called for the immediate sequestration of atmospheric anthropogenic greenhouse gases to help avert serious environmental degradation. India can take the lead in this because it is the second largest emitter of methane. Of all the natural greenhouse gases, methane is the hardiest. Technological advances are making it possible to crack methane into gaseous hydrogen and solid carbon on a commercial scale. Methane cracking can provide a steady supply of hydrogen for futuristic transportation and solid carbon materials — graphene, carbon nanotubes, synthetic diamonds — which are integral to the marine, aerospace and space industries. The commercial benefits apart, methane cracking will also go a long way in meeting the Paris Agreement’s climate change mitigation objectives. This paper offers some concrete recommendations that can help the government of India shape national legislation and global geoeconomic strategies
India is the second largest emitter of methane in the world. But methane-cracking has enormous economic potential. It can help India become a high-technology manufacturing powerhouse by producing a steady supply of methane-derived, advanced carbon materials and hydrogen-energized transportation
On 15 July, the Indian space programme will achieve a feat with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Two challenges lie ahead: the speedy construction of Chandrayaan-3 and the development of a public-private ecosystem of space capabilities
The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation (BECA), the last of the India-U.S. foundational agreements, needs deeper analyses. Its over-emphasis on imaging overlooks the potential clash between the telecom and meteorological technologies, which can hurt India’s crucial capabilities in space-based weather forecasting and disaster management.
Earth Day, which fell on April 22, is an apt time to take stock of carbon emissions. This infographic offers a comparative look at two countries and what their carbon emissions convey about their approach to carbon mitigation
The main objective of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Energy Club, when Russia formed it, was to market its member states’ substantial oil and natural gas reserves. This map shows some of the important natural gas pipelines, originating from Russia and its neighbouring countries that are not members of the SCO. What can India do to secure supplies from these abundant but currently inaccessible natural gas reserves?
With Misson Shakti, India is now part of a rarefied club of global space powers which have demonstrated capability for missile-based anti-satellite weapons
Pakistan’s aspirations for oil and gas prospecting off its Makran coast, south-western Balochistan, are diverging from those of China, which has had a nearly two-decade long presence in Gwadar as an infrastructure provider. To turn Gwadar into the petrochemical hub it desires, Pakistan has sought out other benefactors, changing geopolitical equations in the region
Courtesy: Shutterstock
Courtesy: Shutterstock
Courtesy: Gateway House
Courtesy: Shutterstock
Courtesy: Shutterstock
Courtesy: IEEE Spectrum
Courtesy: thinkprogress.org
Courtesy: ibctrain.com
Courtesy: Wikipedia
Courtesy: thenews.com.pk