A billion-dollar eye over the Earth

Earth is getting a new watchman – a vigilant eye that will keep us updated about our cities, farmlands, forests and seashores, down to a few centimetres, constantly tracking changes as they happen.

This super-powered eye in the sky can spot surface changes smaller than the length of your smartphone. That’s exactly what’s about to happen with Nisar, the most ambitious Earth-watching satellite ever built. It is scheduled to launch on 30 July 2025 from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The numbers behind this mission are staggering. At 1.5 billion US dollars, the Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) satellite holds the record as the most expensive Earth observation satellite ever constructed. But when you consider what it can do, that price tag starts to make sense. The satellite weighs 2,392 kilograms and carries a massive 12-metre antenna that, when unfolded, spans the size of a tennis court.

The mission represents an extraordinary partnership between the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and Nasa, combining Indian S-band systems with American L-band technology. This collaboration has created something neither country could have achieved alone, and Nasa scientists were full of praise for the Indian side during a media meet held on 21 July.

One thing the Isro side could learn from their US counterparts is how to publicise upcoming projects and explain its relevance to the common man – rather than releasing some footage after a mission, often focused solely on dignitaries. This lacklustre PR approach was laid bare during the build-up to the Nisar launch. The launch date announcement from Isro came via a post on X, while Nasa held a formal press conference led by the Nisar mission team, streamed across social media platforms and the internet.

Long Campaign: In fact, the Nasa team has been providing regular updates about the Nisar mission for months. Last year, some of the key Nisar team members were in India, including Kerala, to take part in several functions. During the Great Science Festival of Kerala 2024, they held hours-long interactions with students about the mission.

“We were impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the young students. Some of them have already connected with me through LinkedIn,” said Kyle C McDonald, a Nisar Science Team member and professor at The City College of New York. The Nisar mission data will be useful for such youngsters as it is available free of cost, he said after the student interaction.

“I tell my students to use the Nasa data so they are not limited to the data I provide, and can use what is available there to enhance their study. There is no cost, but they have to create an account. All of my students have done this – they go in and use the search tools provided to find what they are looking for.”

The usefulness of the data that will come from the Nisar satellite is remarkably diverse and touches on issues that affect people across the world.

Data Galore: The satellite will measure the movement of glaciers and ice sheets, providing critical data for understanding the impacts of climate change. It can even detect tiny movements in Earth's crust, potentially helping scientists better understand earthquake patterns and volcanic activity.

The L-band data will be available at the Alaska Satellite Facility, while the S-band radar data will be available on Isro’s Bhoonidhi site.

“We have 65 days of adjustments to place the satellite in the correct repeat orbit and calibrate the radars. By day 65, we expect to get full-frame, science-grade images. We will be ramping up to the science data mode by day 90,” said Paul Rosen, Nisar’s project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), during an online media meet held last week from California.

The Nasa scientists also said that, apart from the radar images, the facility will provide various tools that can be used to derive information required for different research areas.

Local Use: The satellite will complete a full scan of Earth’s land surfaces every 12 days, creating an unprecedented continuous record of our changing planet. This regular monitoring will help scientists and policymakers track long-term trends in everything from urban sprawl to agricultural productivity to ecosystem health.

The constant monitoring of seashores and forest cover will provide places like Kerala with valuable information about the state’s ecological condition. For farmers, it will track soil moisture at the individual field level, offering unprecedented detail for crop management and irrigation planning.

It will also help monitor urban development, enabling city planners to understand how metropolitan areas are changing and offering insight into the effects of groundwater extraction.

“Given the versatility of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), there are many applications for which SAR could provide useful – and in some cases, unique – information. For each of the science use cases, the same data can be used for one or more practical applications, often with little or no change in the core observables. Deformation of a land surface can impact roads and buildings; crop status affects irrigation and food supply; sea ice can be tracked near shipping lanes,” says Cathleen Jones, a senior research scientist at JPL and the Science Team Applications Lead for the Nisar mission.

New Frontiers: Though the main objective of the mission is the scientific study of Earth, the data obtained will also open up new areas of research.

“This is the first time we have such a capability on orbit. One thing we have learned from missions that look down to Earth is that we see and learn things we never expect to see – or didn’t anticipate seeing. So, there is a lot of serendipity that comes along with these first-ever missions,” said Nasa’s Earth Science Division director, Dr Karen St Germain.

As we face increasing challenges from climate change, population growth and natural disasters, having this comprehensive view of Earth becomes not just valuable but essential. From melting glaciers to vanishing forests, Nisar will be our planet’s memory keeper – a digital witness to change, and hopefully, to course correction.

Netrasemi leads Indian charge

Trivandrum-based semiconductor startup Netrasemi has taken another major step towards its goal by securing funding worth 107 crore rupees in a Series A round led by Zoho Corporation and Unicorn India Ventures. The startup, founded by Jyothis Indirabhai, Sreejith Varma, and Deepa Geetha, has been working on edge computing microchips for the past five years. It has now completed two SoC designs, which will be sent to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for fabrication, followed by checks and evaluations that could take up to a year before the chips move to the production line. It is a proud moment for Kerala that a homegrown startup is leading India’s foray into the complex world of the microchip market.

Another key area that India is pushing hard is electronic component manufacturing. New Delhi announced an Electronics Component scheme with funding of 22,919 crore rupees to make India self-reliant in the electronics supply chain. The government is likely to extend the application deadline for the scheme beyond July, reports Money Control. It offers financial incentives to attract investments, enhance local manufacturing capabilities, and create jobs in the electronics sector. As of July 2025, the government has received investment proposals worth 16,000 crore rupees under the scheme, and major companies like Tata Electronics, Dixon Technologies, and Foxconn have shown interest.

End of the road for Ohm Mobility

Here is a reality check for the startup world: funding is not an assurance of success. The journey of EV financing and leasing startup Ohm Mobility shows this. Launched in 2020 by Nikhil Nair, Ohm Mobility set out to bridge the gap between EV fleet operators, manufacturers, battery providers, and financial institutions by facilitating access to capital through tech solutions. It secured around 5 crore rupees in funding from investors including Antler India, Blume Ventures, Catalyst Fund, and several angel backers. But five years later, Ohm Mobility announced that it is shutting down operations, and in a LinkedIn post, Nikhil said they failed to scale up their plan and have learned some hard lessons.

Maestro looks to AI

Guess who was holding talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently? Our own musical maestro AR Rahman. In a social media post, Rahman said they discussed his virtual global band project called Secret Mountain and explored avenues to use AI in the music industry. He said the aim is to empower and uplift Indian minds to use AI tools to address generational challenges and lead the way forward. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds, as the use of AI to create songs is generating significant opposition from musicians and listeners. Spotify has been at the centre of the controversy, with the streaming platform publishing AI-generated songs attributed to deceased artists without the permission of their estates or record labels.

Pie in the sky again

Remember that mysterious cosmic visitor zipping towards the inner solar system – now officially named 3I/ATLAS? Well, it's back in the news, and this time it's caught the attention of Harvard astronomer and part-time alien sleuth Avi Loeb. He’s once again wondering: could this be a scout ship sent by an intelligent extraterrestrial civilisation? Loeb stirred similar buzz back in 2017 with ‘Oumuamua’, the first interstellar object we spotted, though most scientists dismissed his theories. Still, he’s not alone in thinking outside the solar box. Sara Webb from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia makes a fair point: humans have already flung a handful of space probes like Voyager and Pioneer beyond our solar neighbourhood – so who’s to say aliens haven’t done the same? So, keep watching the skies – just in case.