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US President Barack Obama wants to change the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) priorities. According to the new budget proposed for the US space agency in February, the Obama administration wants NASA to outsource rocket development for human spaceflight to commercial companies such as Space Exploration Technologies Corporation and the United Launch Alliance, a collaboration between defence contractor Lockheed Martin and aeroplane giant Boeing. Speaking at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida sometime ago, Obama tried to muster support for his NASA vision.
If the Obama plan gets approved by the US Congress, in future NASA astronauts will pay for orbital launches in commercial spacecraft developed by private companies. NASA's change of direction provides a big opportunity for India to step up to the plate and take leadership of manned spaceflight.
It is probably a safe bet to predict the US companies will slip in delivering spacecraft capable of leaving earth's gravity. One of the companies has already missed its initial projections. The reason is simple: such technical expertise is hard won. NASA has the expertise, but not the companies. They will need to build it up (and, realistically, it is not something that a company can easily hire away). Russia has expertise to launch crewed spacecraft, but has never sent men to the moon. Besides, its space programme is in dire straits.
This is where India could come in. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proved it can launch spacecraft headed to the moon. Not only did Chandrayaan-1 reach lunar orbit, it has been a scientific success. It has spotted a lot of ice on the moon, and Indian scientists have partnered NASA counterparts in scientific experiments.
China has spotted this opportunity as well, and is itself interested in the conquest of space. Chinese astronauts have done space walks, and China is supposed to be building a heavy thrust rocket that can carry men to the moon. While officially the Chinese government has not said it will try to send humans to the moon, it seems to be investigating the possibility. Other than the US and Russia, China is the only country that has sent humans into space. Though it has not launched humans into orbit yet, India's space expertise at this point rivals China's and may even exceed it in certain key scientific areas such as lunar landers and telemetry.
If ISRO jumps into the ring, the world will see a space race between India and China reminiscent of one between the US and the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. (NASA was created in July 1958 by US President Dwight Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 a few months earlier. In 1961, the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin into orbit. At its peak, NASA's budget was almost 1 per cent of US GDP. On July 20, 1969, America won the race as NASA astronauts took the first human steps on the moon.)
What will India have to do to take the lead? For one, the issue has to become a national priority, with support at the highest levels. It will require a big budget, though ISRO is remarkably cost-efficient. The Chandrayaan-1 project cost just below Rs 400 crore, about $80 million, about a fifth or a sixth of what it would have cost NASA to do something comparable. With ISRO's expertise and India's existing scientific manpower, a focused effort may bear fruit relatively quickly. Arguably, the race with China will spur creativity and speed. There are a few other space hopefuls, such as Japan and South Korea, but at this point China seems India's biggest competitor.
There will be questions as to whether India can afford this. Wouldn't the money be better spent fighting poverty or building schools and dams? India's leaders will have to make the choice. There will be by-products of such a lunar effort (just as NASA research led to better sneakers, better runways, better sunglasses, better solar panels and so on). Maybe Chandrayaan-1's successors will find evidence of helium-3 which could be used to build fusion reactors on the moon, just as Chandrayaan-1 found evidence of water. A lunar effort will inspire thousands of young Indians to become scientists, bettering India's chances for leading the world in science and technology in future. And it will vastly improve India's brand in the world.
Big science projects have always faced questions. Probably one of the best answers to them was given by Robert Wilson, who went on to be the first director of Fermilab, housing the giant multimillion-dollar particle accelerator, outside Chicago. In Congress in 1969, Wilson was quizzed about the value of the accelerator to US security and asked to justify the expenditure. He responded: "It has only to do with...the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets?...all the things we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending."
If India decides to take the lead in manned space flight, it is quite conceivable Indian manned spacecraft will one day ferry not only Indian but also NASA astronauts into orbit
Getting India Into Orbit - Edit Page - Opinion - Home - The Times of India
If the Obama plan gets approved by the US Congress, in future NASA astronauts will pay for orbital launches in commercial spacecraft developed by private companies. NASA's change of direction provides a big opportunity for India to step up to the plate and take leadership of manned spaceflight.
It is probably a safe bet to predict the US companies will slip in delivering spacecraft capable of leaving earth's gravity. One of the companies has already missed its initial projections. The reason is simple: such technical expertise is hard won. NASA has the expertise, but not the companies. They will need to build it up (and, realistically, it is not something that a company can easily hire away). Russia has expertise to launch crewed spacecraft, but has never sent men to the moon. Besides, its space programme is in dire straits.
This is where India could come in. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proved it can launch spacecraft headed to the moon. Not only did Chandrayaan-1 reach lunar orbit, it has been a scientific success. It has spotted a lot of ice on the moon, and Indian scientists have partnered NASA counterparts in scientific experiments.
China has spotted this opportunity as well, and is itself interested in the conquest of space. Chinese astronauts have done space walks, and China is supposed to be building a heavy thrust rocket that can carry men to the moon. While officially the Chinese government has not said it will try to send humans to the moon, it seems to be investigating the possibility. Other than the US and Russia, China is the only country that has sent humans into space. Though it has not launched humans into orbit yet, India's space expertise at this point rivals China's and may even exceed it in certain key scientific areas such as lunar landers and telemetry.
If ISRO jumps into the ring, the world will see a space race between India and China reminiscent of one between the US and the Soviet Union in the midst of the Cold War. (NASA was created in July 1958 by US President Dwight Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 a few months earlier. In 1961, the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin into orbit. At its peak, NASA's budget was almost 1 per cent of US GDP. On July 20, 1969, America won the race as NASA astronauts took the first human steps on the moon.)
What will India have to do to take the lead? For one, the issue has to become a national priority, with support at the highest levels. It will require a big budget, though ISRO is remarkably cost-efficient. The Chandrayaan-1 project cost just below Rs 400 crore, about $80 million, about a fifth or a sixth of what it would have cost NASA to do something comparable. With ISRO's expertise and India's existing scientific manpower, a focused effort may bear fruit relatively quickly. Arguably, the race with China will spur creativity and speed. There are a few other space hopefuls, such as Japan and South Korea, but at this point China seems India's biggest competitor.
There will be questions as to whether India can afford this. Wouldn't the money be better spent fighting poverty or building schools and dams? India's leaders will have to make the choice. There will be by-products of such a lunar effort (just as NASA research led to better sneakers, better runways, better sunglasses, better solar panels and so on). Maybe Chandrayaan-1's successors will find evidence of helium-3 which could be used to build fusion reactors on the moon, just as Chandrayaan-1 found evidence of water. A lunar effort will inspire thousands of young Indians to become scientists, bettering India's chances for leading the world in science and technology in future. And it will vastly improve India's brand in the world.
Big science projects have always faced questions. Probably one of the best answers to them was given by Robert Wilson, who went on to be the first director of Fermilab, housing the giant multimillion-dollar particle accelerator, outside Chicago. In Congress in 1969, Wilson was quizzed about the value of the accelerator to US security and asked to justify the expenditure. He responded: "It has only to do with...the dignity of men, our love of culture. It has to do with: Are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets?...all the things we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending."
If India decides to take the lead in manned space flight, it is quite conceivable Indian manned spacecraft will one day ferry not only Indian but also NASA astronauts into orbit
Getting India Into Orbit - Edit Page - Opinion - Home - The Times of India
