A team from IIT Bombay is developing a pair of scientific satellites, called Daksha, aimed at studying some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. The mission is expected to enhance understanding of exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, solar flares, and high-altitude lightning, among others.

According to Dr. Varun Bhalerao, an astrophysicist at IIT Bombay, Daksha will provide a wide-angle view of space, unlike existing space telescopes operated by foreign agencies, which focus on zoomed-in regions.

Understanding cosmic explosions

  • Exploding stars (Supernovae) mark the death of massive stars.

  • Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the universe’s most energetic explosions, emitting more energy in seconds than the Sun over its lifetime. Nearby GRBs could affect life on Earth. These explosions also formed heavy elements like gold and uranium.

  • Solar flares are sudden energy bursts from the Sun that can disrupt satellites, GPS, and space missions.

  • High-altitude lightning occurs in the upper atmosphere and near space, unlike normal lightning.

Daksha aims to track all these high-energy events in real time, offering new data for astrophysics, solar studies, and atmospheric sciences.

Journey of the Daksha mission

Dr. Bhalerao shared the mission’s origin: "Back in 2018, Indian space agency ISRO invited Indian scientists and academia to propose space telescope ideas, and ours happened to be ranked highly, which got us some seed funding for creating a proof of concept."

Since then, his team has developed sensitive detectors and sensors. They are now awaiting approvals from ISRO and the Indian Cabinet to move forward.

Each Daksha satellite will carry a 150kg science payload developed by the IIT Bombay team, while ISRO will provide the satellite structure, solar panels, and other standard components.

Dr. Bhalerao explained the capabilities: "The twin Daksha satellites could continuously look out for any high-energy activity occurring in our Universe, and the payloads are sensitive enough to capture activity that is billions of light-years away."

In terms of coverage, Daksha will outperform existing satellites:

  • 5 times better volumetric coverage than NASA-ESA’s Fermi satellite

  • 13 times better than NASA’sSWIFT satellite

"Even if a specific type of explosion or high-energy event in space is far away or too faint to be captured, we can capture it because of our equipment sensitivity and wide field of view, as opposed to the zoomed-in view of other space telescopes," Dr. Bhalerao said.

The Daksha mission is set to give Indian scientists a powerful tool to study the cosmos, offering a wide view of high-energy events that were previously difficult to track.