US and India should cooperate in space

US President Barack Obama received Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week for the first official state visit of his administration, a visit befitting India's emergence as a major global actor. It also signals America's commitment to a strong partnership.

For more than a decade, the US-India relationship has been deepening. This visit provides the chance to focus on a big idea that could lift relations to a higher orbit — literally.

Obama and Singh should unveil a long-term bilateral initiative to work together to secure the threatened common spaces of our planet — our global commons — including the seas, atmosphere, outer space and the digital domain. The two leaders should underscore this by launching a major venture in outer space.

The Obama administration and Singh government are both in their first year of tenure and have the political capital to push through a major advance. A similar moment in July 2005 led to the launch of a challenging civil nuclear initiative and its passage against great odds in both capitals.

Today, the conventional wisdom is that the two leaders will not match the scale of the nuclear bargain and should limit themselves to consolidating recent gains. We disagree. They should aim higher and focus on strategic cooperation in outer space. They can bring lasting benefits to national space programmes and lay out the framework for an international code of conduct in outer space.

Besides influencing a range of international issues, from energy security to global warming, space cooperation could define a new template for the management of the global commons. As Washington looks for new partners in the management of the global commons, India is a natural choice.

Enduring partnership

After the end of the Soviet Union, the US has had no real peers in outer space. Today as the US reviews its civilian and military space objectives amid shrinking resources, there is a broad consensus within the space community that Washington needs enduring partnerships, both bilateral and multilateral, in outer space.

What does Delhi bring to the table? As a rising space power with real and potential technical skills, India can help the US pursue more ambitious goals in outer space and at a lower cost. India's contribution to advances in outer space are impressive, such as the discovery of water molecules on the surface of the moon by its lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1. The US partnered with India on this mission, with two Nasa payloads on board.

Four broad areas of bilateral space cooperation present themselves. First, advanced launch technologies. The greatest limitation on space-ventures is the cost of launching objects into space. The two countries should partner in basic scientific research, such as advanced materials and combustion science that could enable a new generation of spacecraft, while avoiding the proliferation of dangerous ballistic missile capabilities.

Second, lunar exploration and beyond. With interest in both countries for exploring the moon and its resources, the US and India should exploit synergies between their moon programmes and consult on an ambitious human exploration of the moon and inter-planetary space. Lunar resources could be used to lower the costs of sustaining human and robotic outposts beyond the earth.

Third, climate change. The two countries should use the massive American and growing Indian space assets for earth observation to provide comprehensive and credible assessments of climate change.

Fourth, space governance. The US and India should work to forge a consensus on limiting space debris, improving ‘space situational awareness' for avoiding hazards, and ensuring unhindered operation of the space assets of all nations. Creating a new voluntary code of conduct in outer space could mark the start of an effort to bring order to the global commons.

An Obama-Singh space initiative could become the defining feature of an expansive US-India collaboration, especially in science and technology. It could also create the basis for securing our global commons and offer incentives to other major powers to join this vital undertaking.

Karl Inderfurth is a professor at George Washington University and a former assistant secretary of state for south Asia affairs, 1997-2001. Raja Mohan is Henry Kissinger chair in foreign policy at the Library of Congress and a contributing editor of The Indian Express, New Delhi.