New Delhi:\u00a0A science communicator and space enthusiast on social media under the pseudonym \u2018Gareeb Scientist\u2019 sat determined behind his keyboard Tuesday. As soon as the clock struck one, he hit enter on a flurry of posts on X, with the hashtag, \u2018ISROfixyourPR\u2019.<\/p>\n
He is part of a digital war. The aim is to awaken the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from its 55-year-old slumber by demanding better public outreach and engagement by the space agency around its space missions and technology development.<\/p>\n
\u201cA kid growing in India learns about NASA (US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration) before it does ISRO because NASA puts so much effort into taking its work to its citizens and the public, from the smallest of things to the biggest,\u201d \u2018Gareeb Scientist\u2019 said in a post on Tuesday. Since then, at least 11,000 people have viewed it.<\/p>\n
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The Indian science community is currently waging a war against the veil around ISRO-supported operations, fighting with memes, personal anecdotes and a carefully crafted list of its work, which has remained hidden from public discourse.<\/p>\n
Many Indian social media accounts, which dedicatedly post space updates from ISRO, said the campaign started with the aim to highlight the lack of PR from the space agency. The issue also extended to big-ticket missions, such as the recent partnership between ISRO and US-based Axiom Space to jointly send Indian Air Force group captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n
Experts said that the visibility of ISRO missions had improved over the last decade. However, they added, the burden of information dissemination remained limited to media houses and independent science communicators, who often obtained information outside of official statements.<\/p>\n
Radha Krishna Kavuluru, a space technology expert and former ISRO scientist, said ISRO, in the coming years, would conduct some inspiring missions that could inspire an entire generation of future space scientists.<\/p>\n
Kavuluru said that maximum public engagement would ensure that the public had an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of ISRO while they witnessed the indigenous scientific advancements.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping everything behind walls is a tradition of the Soviets. I am sure we are well past that age. Time to inspire and talk the walk,\u201d Kavuluru told ThePrint.<\/p>\n
Also Read: ISRO commercial arm invites private players to build LVM3 rocket that delivered Chandrayaan mission<\/a><\/p>\n Silence around recent missions \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n On 25 June, IAF group captain Shubhanshu Shukla kicked off his journey to the ISS as a member of the\u00a0US-run\u00a0Axiom-4 mission. He became the first Indian to set foot on the ISS, and after Rakesh Sharma, the second Indian to travel to space.<\/p>\n However, the buzz around the mission was limited to newspaper front pages and TV screens. The official social media pages of ISRO stayed content with reposting updates from the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh.<\/p>\n Between the 1 June Axiom-4 launch and its 15 July return to Earth, ISRO made 24 posts\u00a0on its X account about the Axiom-4 mission, including 19 reposts of posts by the science minister, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, or the Public Information Bureau. The remaining five posts on the ISRO X account informed about the multiple postponements of the launch and the technical faults that SpaceX\u2019s Falcon-9 rocket experienced.<\/p>\n In the same period, NASA, through its various X handles, did a run-up to the launch with at least one post per day, while reposting engagement posts by Axiom Space and SpaceX. The US space agency, in partnership with Axiom Space, organised interaction sessions with the astronauts and released not only individual profile films for each but also infographics for the rocket launch and space capsule travel trajectory, among other actions.<\/p>\n More recently, updates on missions, such as the demonstration of the advanced technology behind rendezvous, docking, and undocking of a spacecraft in space\u2014SpaDeX\u2014and the upcoming one-of-a-kind NASA-ISRO SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) Mission or NISAR, a joint Earth observation mission, have been few and far in between.<\/p>\n On Monday, during the announcement of the NISAR launch date, ISRO\u2019s PR was limited to a post on X, as NASA held a formal press conference led by the team that will undertake the mission from the US space agency\u2019s end. The team members answered all media questions on all aspects of the mission. However, ISRO was not part of the press conference.<\/p>\n Vikranth Jonna, a 22-year-old engineer with Hyderabad-based space tech startup Dhruva Space, listed the \u201ccrazy cool\u201d work ISRO has done for the mission. \u201cISRO is currently building methalox engines, quantum communications, human spaceflight, reusable rockets, two landers to the Moon, a mission to Venus and a lander to Mars,\u201d Jonna said.<\/p>\n \u201cGive us more opportunities to appreciate our scientists and engineers. Show us your glory,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n ISRO refused to respond to ThePrint\u2019s request for a response to the ongoing social media campaign. A senior scientist confirmed to ThePrint that ISRO had \u201cgotten better\u201d in its PR game but accepted that compared to its counterparts, such as NASA or European Space Agency (ESA), there is a long way to go.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, there is always room for improvement. But you need to acknowledge that the space sector in India has only started opening up, and some projects still need to operate with secrecy,\u201d the scientist said.<\/p>\n