To infinity and beyond

Asia’s space race got a whole lot tighter when India’s first satellite orbiting the moon, the unmanned Chandrayaan, marked a dramatic step forward in 2008. Though China had stolen a march in 2003 by becoming only the third nation to fly a man into space (after the United States and the old Soviet Union), India’s moon mission ushered a new dimension to the country’s space programme — it joined an elite club by planting its flag on the moon as the country’s space agency released pictures of the cratered surface taken by its maiden lunar mission.

Unfortunately, the country had to abandon Chandrayaan, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, nearly a year later after communication links snapped and scientists lost control of the satellite. The mission lasted less than a year compared to the two years of planned life, but the man behind the mission, Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan believes it was victory for India — an optimism backed by research.

In an exclusive interview with Weekend Review, he said: “The objectives of Chandrayaan was to seek clearer answers for fundamental questions related to the origin and evolution of the Moon, upgrading some of the technological capabilities such as advanced trajectory calculations and realising capabilities for deep space communications. The mission realised most of the objectives, including the most significant scientific outcome of detecting water.”

After all, it is a country that plans to soar in good times and bad, and the story of its explorations of the Moon is a perfect metaphor for the growing presence of India on the world stage.

While Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s plans for lunar exploration Chandrayaan got bolstered with the government allocating the ambitious programme Rs825 million (Dh54.3 million) in the 2012-13 budget, some have questioned the logic of a country still so deeply mired in poverty, lagging in infrastructure development, health care and education spending millions for a scientific pursuit.

Kasturirangan, who was the chairperson of ISRO when the Chandrayaan project was announced and is at present the member of the Planning Commission of India (economic institution of India that formulates its five-year plans), has no patience for such argument, saying that with the growing economic strength of the country, India can’t miss any opportunity that can contribute to its overall growth.

“India has been witnessing a high annual rate of economic growth, 7-9 per cent in GDP over the last decade. There are expectations that India could become the third largest economy in the world by 2030 or so. Obviously, India, with its aspirations to be a future knowledge power, cannot miss any opportunity that can contribute to national prestige.

“The outcome from such missions would be fully commensurate with the level of expenditure that we would be incurring from scientific, technological, inspirational and international prestige. We certainly have the necessary resources and capability to conduct such missions, placing us among the top few nations of the world. No compromises need to be made in the larger context of the mega plans in the social sector,” he adds.

India’s neighbour and rival China has been forging ahead in space and in 2003 became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. It followed that in 2008 with its first spacewalk.

Beyond preliminary lunar explorations, India is also planning to move deeper into the solar system, such as Venus and Mars. The Mars mission, which comprises putting a spacecraft on the red planet’s orbit to study its atmosphere, could be launched next year by ISRO’s warhorse rocket — the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

Even if officials from the countries’ space agencies are unwilling to acknowledge it, policy experts say that the space race is intensifying in Asia, with risk for future confrontations and the further militarisation of space.

Asked how he rates India in Asian space race and if China is overtaking the country, the award-winning scientist, recipient of the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. — India’s highest civilian honour — says: “I don’t think it is important for us to be a part of the so-called Asian space race or compete with other countries of Asia, particularly China. Our programme is very well tuned to national objectives of development and exploration. We have demonstrated to the world the utility of space to address a number of societal problems such as those related to education, health care, natural resources management, communication, disaster management and so on. India occupies a very unique place among the space-faring nations.”

Meanwhile, it is reported that India’s space agency is planning the nation’s first manned space flight for 2016, but Kasturirangan feels human space flight is a different kettle of fish, compared to what it has been doing so far.

“Certainly at some point of time in future, we should have our plans towards a programme related to human space flight. We need to explore with a number of stakeholders as to what they would like to have from such missions. Further, we should look at the possibilities of international collaboration and co-operation for optimising time and cost. For sustainability of such a huge effort, I think, the homework that we need to do is quite exhaustive.”

Though the country’s space programme faces formidable challenges, one can’t deny the benefits accrued from space technology. Kasturirangan says the core objectives of India’s space programme in the socio-economic sector.

“The remote sensing satellites provide information on land use and land type classifications, ground water exploration and surface water mapping, forest survey, agricultural production and prediction of yield and so on and so forth. Our communication satellites provide connectivity. On the environment side, Indian remote sensing satellites provide information on the state of forest health, map biodiversity, wastelands and so on. Also more recently, ISRO has embarked on developing a satellite to monitor greenhouse gases such as CO2, CO and NO, which could be of global interest.”

While it was the flag of India that adorned its first lunar spacecraft, one could say that the capsule itself was built under the aegis of India Inc. As it joined the ranks of the US, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China, India is determined to end its dependency on foreign rocket technology.

In the recent times, Kasturirangan says, there has been no acquisition of any rocket technology from other countries except cryogenic stage from Russia for GSLV Mark 2. “In the near future, the level of self-reliance can be nearly total. However, that will not stop it us from collaborating with other countries on developing new concepts of future space transportation systems.”