After Karwa Chauth

The state is now looking beyond Sarabhai8217;s plan. Exploring planets needs to be viewed not as a policy shift, but as a natural progression

The Indian space programme has come a long way from its modest beginnings on November 21, 1963, when it launched its first rocket. That was a Nike Apache, imported from the United States. The two-stage rocket climbed to an altitude of 208 km. Today, 45 years on, India is launching its first moon mission 8212;Chandrayaan-1. This time, with fully indigenous work, Indian scientists plan to cover a distance of some 3,84,467 km. The mission involvesnbsp;placing a 525-kg spacecraft in lunar orbit; and it carries sensors from European countries and the US.

This clearly shows the confidence these major space-faring entities have in ISRO8217;s capabilities. For more than four decades the Indian space programme has faced many challenges. Most recently, ISRO was the worst-hit among major Indian institutions by India8217;s nuclear ambitions; it paid a heavy price because of the sanctions regime put in place following India8217;s first nuclear test in 1974. The sanctions may have barred ISRO from importing high technology, but, in hindsight, it could be argued that, in a way, that helped the process of indigenisation.

With the Chandrayaan-1 mission India is taking a big leap into previously unexplored areas of space. This marks the first Indian venture into planetary space science. Over the years the space programme has essentially revolved around designing and developing launchers and satellites for remote sensing and communication, as well as for meteorological purposes. This dates to the original vision: the vision that was clearly articulated by Vikram Sarabhai in presence of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, when she dedicated the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station to the United Nations.nbsp;He stated then that India8217;s programme is civilian, focussing on space technology as an additional tool for the socio-economic development of the country. It was supposed to be a programme capable of using space technologies in areas judged vital for development 8212; such as communications, meteorology, and natural resource management. During the 8216;70s Sarabhai argued that India should not fantasise about competing with economically advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or the planets or manned spaceflight.

Things have changed. The state is now looking beyond Sarabhai8217;s plan. This added dimension 8212; exploring planets 8212; needs to be viewed not as a policy shift, but as a natural progression. There are reasons for this. India has started looking at planetary and lunar projects only after it has successfully established space architecture that can fulfil its socio-economic responsibilities. Further, on the commercial front, Indian space facilities are much in demand. States are queuing up with requests to send their satellites into outer space. Naturally, Indian scientists wanted some more challenging task.

Unfortunately, some, both within the country and outside, have a different opinion about the moon quest. They feel that it is overambitious and a waste of resources for a nation where millions still lack basic services. However, the point is rarely made, or taken into account, that India8217;s moon mission has long-term strategic implications. It would help in the preparation of a three-dimensional atlas of regions on the moon and aid the effort to create a chemical mapping of the entire lunar surface. It will also look for Helium-3, which some believe is a possible answer to the global energy crises. Today, hardly any Helium-3 is freely available on Earth; it is, however, expected to be available in abundance on the moon. It is theorised by some that this non-radioactive isotope of Helium could be used in fusion reactors for production of energy; being non-radioactive it would have greater advantages over standard nuclear energy, produced from fission reactions. The mission is expected to cost less than Rs 400 crore; the potential payoff, of safer, cheaper energy, is of a different order of magnitude.

Apart from India, states like Japan and China already have major plans in place regarding the moon. They sent up crafts a year ago, collecting information about the moon8217;s surface. With China forging ahead in the space field, India cannot afford to lag too far behind. Hypothetically, some kind of colonisation of the moon cannot be ruled out in the coming decades, especially if commercial exploitation becomes viable.

Hence, it8217;s not a question of whether India can afford it but of whether India can afford to ignore it. This mission would enhance India8217;s capabilities in the field of rocket science and give India an opportunity to raise its technological profile 8212; and India would greatly benefit from the spin-off technologies emerging out of such quest. The strategic implications are also difficult to ignore.

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The writer researches non-traditional threats to national security at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi

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