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NORTH AMERICAN Newsline SEPTEMBER 18, 2026 | The Indian Eye 26

“India ready for challenge”:

Sunita Williams on future

of space stations

OUR BUREAU
Bengaluru
ASA astronaut Sunita Williams on Wednes-
day said India is “ready for the challenge” of
Nbuilding future space stations, while stress-
ing that advanced technologies, autonomous sys-
tems and international cooperation will be critical
as human spaceflight moves beyond the Interna-
tional Space Station (ISS).
Speaking at the Space Expo session “The Next
Chapter of Space: A Conversation on Exploration,
Science and Innovation”, Williams said the next
generation of space stations offers an opportunity
to develop systems that can reduce dependence on
Earth, including onboard databases, reliable 3D
printing and autonomous scientific analysis.
Reflecting on her experience aboard the ISS,
Williams said astronauts cannot simply rely on a da-
tabase or search engine in space in the same way
people on Earth can.
“It’s a great question. I think everybody in this
room has had a question in their mind, and then
pulled out their phone and was able to find the an- might sound funny, but I’m sure there are people Williams also said commercial space stations
swer. That’s not as easy on the International Space out there who have wrestled with the printer. Yes, could provide an opportunity to develop and im-
Station. We don’t have that database up there to we wrestle with the printer in space because it re- plement new ideas more quickly, while maintaining
help us answer all the questions, so we rely on good lies on gravity. So we have to rethink how machines safety and reliability. “One thing I really like -- you
communications with the ground. So I’m hoping operate and how to make a machine that doesn’t might have seen I had a shirt on that says ‘Vast’ --
that new technologies will allow us to have that da- need gravity. Here on Earth, that’s how we design one of the nice things I like about these future space
tabase with us on our future space stations, so we everything,” Williams added. station ideas is that we can do things a little quick-
could just look something up,” Williams added. The retired US Navy officer said another major er,” she said.
She said such a database would not merely be lesson from her missions was the need for astro- “Of course, we want to do things safely and reli-
useful psychologically, but could become important nauts to carry out scientific analysis autonomously ably, and that has created some bureaucracy in our
for solving technical problems during missions, par- rather than constantly sending data back to Earth. processes. Not to mention, it’s busy up on the space
ticularly as spacecraft travel farther from Earth. “Finally, I think one of the more recent take- station, and we don’t have a lot of time to change
“And why is that important? It’s not just im- aways was -- and this became very real to me -- that things because we have things that have been pro-
portant psychologically -- it’s nice to just know the every time we did an experiment, we had to send cessed for long periods of time,” Williams added.
answer to something. But in reality, it’s like, ‘How data back to the ground or send part of that ex- Calling the transition to new space stations “a
do I fix that?’ I’m sure a lot of people in the au- periment back for analysis. We need to be able to new chapter”, she said both commercial and gov-
dience have also looked up, ‘Somebody else has do that ourselves, autonomously, if we are going ernment-led projects could benefit from lessons
had this thing break -- how does it get fixed?’ If we to take those next steps. That includes everything learned on the ISS.
could have a database of that, we could be a little from medical tests to answers for some of the ex- “So this is a new chapter and a new way to start
less reliant on the folks on the ground. And as we periments we have up there,” Williams added. with brand new space stations, whether they are
move farther and farther away from Earth, and we She said future spacecraft would need on- commercial or government space stations -- things
have delays in getting answers, this becomes critical board databases and machines capable of ana- to keep in mind for the infrastructure as we start,”
when we’re trying to fix things or take the next step,” lysing information without depending entirely on she said.
she added. Earth. “Rather than relying on the ground to have Williams said it would be difficult to introduce
Williams also underlined the importance of re- all the answers and relying on down-mass capability, some of these technologies into the ISS at this stage,
liable 3D printing for future space missions, noting we need to have all those databases and that ability given that parts of the station have been operating
that even something as basic as printing on paper in space — to have machines that can do that anal- for more than 25 years.
becomes complicated in microgravity. ysis,” she said. “I think it would be very difficult to implement
“Along with that is 3D printing -- reliable 3D “So there are a lot of technological advance- some of these ideas on the International Space Sta-
printing. In space, that’s hard. And just to give con- ments that would be great to have on the future tion at this juncture. It has been flying for over 25
text, it’s hard to print on paper in space as well. That space station,” Williams added. Continued on next page... >>

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