Chaitanya Giri

Chaitanya Giri

Former Fellow, Space and Ocean Studies Programme

Dr. Chaitanya Giri is the former Gateway House Fellow of Space and Ocean Studies Programme. 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

Last modified: May 6, 2019

Recent projects

ClimateEngineering_GH_CIGI_Cover Courtesy: Gateway House & CIGI
28 February 2019 Gateway House & CIGI

Making Terrestrial Geoengineering Technologies Viable: An Opportunity for India-Canada Climate Leadership

The use of terrestrial geoengineering techniques, such as carbon capture, is necessary to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius, as per the Paris Agreement’s targets. Terrestrial geoengineering is different from atmospheric climate engineering: the latter does not remove the very source of the increased greenhouse effect, which are anthropogenic greenhouse gases. India and Canada must collaborate on carbon capture and propose multilateral regulations for unethical atmospheric climate engineering
IndiaTimes Courtesy: India Times
6 December 2018 Gateway House

Kartarpur-Canada-India-China

The recent opening of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab and the release of a Canadian parliamentary report on the security breach during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s India visit are important developments. They present a good opportunity for New Delhi to step up cooperation with Ottawa on countering terrorism and violent extremism
7295_Mars-MarCO-InSight-Lander-CubeSats-Illustration-PIA19388-full2 Courtesy: NASA
29 November 2018 Gateway House

Emergence of the interplanetary telecom industry

The NASA InSight mission has demonstrated that cube satellites can, after all, endure interplanetary travel. Such miniaturisation of technology looks set to disrupt the obsolete 20th century approach to space exploration. It will give rise to an interplanetary telecom industry, which is indispensable for the support of human presence on Mars
NTNU_blacksmokers_800x300 Courtesy: NTNU
22 November 2018 Gateway House

Oceanic Industry 4.0

The emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution depends on the availability of rare- earth minerals, which occur extensively on the ocean floor of the Indo-Pacific. The technology to exploit this is available only to some countries currently: the global agreement on this must be fair and safeguard India’s future interests, says the author of this blog
Capture Courtesy: Swarajya
3 October 2018 Swarajya

Putting an Indian on the moon

A grand achievement is a series of smaller, well-defined, and precise accomplishments. If the vision of putting an Indian on the moon has to materialise, it should be preceded by several smaller projects and diverse institutions meeting definite targets. What would these targets be? Where does India’s scientific community stand in meeting them as of this day? What kind, and how much, additional capacity needs to be added to the Indian science sector to put an Indian on the moon?

Sanctions_CoverFinal (1) Courtesy: Gateway House
4 September 2018 Gateway House

U.S. sanctions on Russia and its impact on India

America is increasingly using sanctions as a geopolitical tool against its rivals, Russia, Iran and Venezuela. These countries are important partners for India, which needs to find ways around unilateral American sanctions.
rsz_internet-cable-under-sea-02-1504586457708 Courtesy: Dantri.com
30 August 2018 Gateway House

The strategic impact of technology

Every country has strategic goals to pursue and technology ecosystems play a vital role in achieving them

SEI_Lunar_Base_Concept01 Courtesy: NASA/SAIC/Pat Rawlings
9 August 2018 Gateway House

Geopolitical territoriality on the moon

Ownership of lunar artifacts – objects left behind by space missions – will become a vexing issue as the international footprint on the Moon grows. Such archaeological objects may be designated ‘national heritage’, but the site on which they exist ought to remain ‘a global common’, and not become a point of territorial contestation. The Moon needs to be managed by global consensus, prudence and realism.
2-8-18 CableMap-02 - Copy Courtesy: Gateway House
2 August 2018 Gateway House

Version 2: Mapping China’s global telecom empire

This version of the Gateway House Map on China’s Expanding Global Telecom Empire identifies some more telecommunication assets -- optic-fibre and satellite ground stations -- that Beijing is working on in South and Central America, Africa, Myanmar, the Indian Ocean Region and mainland China besides the existing ones, such as the Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE). It shows the direction China’s investment is taking, its diplomatic overtures and the larger geopolitical implications of its growing telecom empire