India in space
Matt Brown
Monday, 18 February 2008 15:22 UTC
I’d be interested to know what Nature India readers think about India’s space program.
What is realistic for India in the next 5, 10, 20 years?
Should India invenst in manned programs and robotic exploration of other worlds, when the country has pressing social problems?
Is there a new space race brewing between China and India?
I’m fascinated by space exploration, but know relatively little about ISRO and Indian space efforts. I would be interested to read any opinions from forum members.
For those interested, Nature Network now has a Space forum. Please feel free to start conversations there, too.
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Replies
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Hi Matt,
The Indian space programme thrives on less than one twentieth of the NASA budget. India entered the space-race more than a decade later than NASA. Today, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is not just propelling hi-tech satellites into orbit from its own launch site in south India, it is also offering piggyback services for a small fee to third world countries, who can’t dream of a cosmic run on their own. That, I think, is a commendable feat.
The manned mission to moon was dropped last year, as you might know. India was in no competition in the beginning as China’s space efforts were driven by military needs. India’s focus was on programmes for national development—studying monsoons, telecommunications, television networks and remote sensing. But ISRO has shown signs of getting influenced by China since 2003 when China put a man in space. Even then, this can at best be viewed as a race for prestige among neighbours and is nowhere near the US-Soviet race of late 1950s and 1960s since the two countries are not pouring massive amounts of money to be one up on each another.
On whether India must spend on a manned mission, I must say that similar objections were raised on India’s mission to Anatarctica a quarter century ago and even when India began its nuclear programme. Today when India realizes how difficult it is now to get uranium fuel from the US, people are thanking visionaries like Homi Bhabha who put India on the nuclear map 40 years ago.
Not many seem to be asking the quintessential question on whether developing nations must spend so much on space research rather than concentrating on bigger societal needs of food security, health and education. Commerce is what drives space activities today.
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India’s missile man Dr A P J Abdul Kalam has written a commentary for Nature India that might interest you.
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