Space on a budget: India's low-cost success story - RADIO AUSTRALIA
Updated 1 July 2014, 11:19 AEST
India's Prime Minister has used the launch of a home-grown rocket to endorse the country's space program as the most cost-effective in the world.
At the launch of a rocket carrying five foreign satellites, Narendra Modi said India has the potential to supply the world with reliable, low-cost space technology.
As Tom Maddocks reports, Mr Modi says India's developing space program is using technology for the benefit of the poor.
Reporter: Tom Maddocks
Speakers: Pallava Bagla, science editor, New Delhi Television; Upendra Choudhury, associate professor, International Politics, Aligarh Muslim University
MADDOCKS: (SFX) Another step for India's ambitious space programme. The home-grown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off from the south eastern space port of Sriharitoka, carrying satellites from France, Germany, Canada and Singapore.
At the space port for the rocket's launch was Pallava Bagla, an Indian science journalist and the author of the book "Destination Moon".
BAGLA: The Indian space research programme, is really very, very cost-effective, and it works on a shoestring budget. The annual budget for the Indian research organisation is just about may be under one-billion dollars. Compared to that, NASA's annual budget is 17-billion dollars.
MADDOCKS: In November last year, India launched its maiden mission to Mars - its biggest space mission yet. The rocket is on track to reach Mars by September, and apparently, it cost less money than the making of the Hollywood blockbuster film 'Gravity'. The mission is part of a program said to be delivering more often, and with a smaller price tag. But there's a caveat, says Pallava Bagla.
BAGLA: The Indian space research programme is funded by the Indian government, so there is a lot of hidden costs which don't come upfront as a measurable cost for people. At the end of the day, it has to compete in the global market. It will have to charge prices and get costs which are competitive to other private players. Right now, because it is a government-funded programme, they can work on shoestring budgets, on shoestring salaries and get things going. But in the end, if the private sector has to take over India's launch market programme, I'm sure the pricing will go quite high.
MADDOCKS: But he says India has the potential to be a game-changer in supplying low-cost space technology to the rest of the world. And the country's leader agrees.
There for the launch at the space centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi overwhelmingly endorsed India's space capabilities. India's scientists, he says, have shown the world a new paradigm of frugal engineering. He's called for the development of a satellite that will provide services for South Asian nations, presented as a gift from India.
The day he was sworn in as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi invited all the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Science journalist Pallava Bagla again.
BAGLA: So he's carrying forward that hand of friendship, in saying that, India which has the capability of making satellites and launching satellites, is now ready to gift a satellite to the SAARC mission, which could eventually benefit them.
MADDOCKS: Some argue that while the space program is delivered at a fraction of the price it costs other major nations, the priority should be on other things, like poverty reduction. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi says space technology is for the common man, and the country's space program, is thus driven by a vision of service to humanity - not by a desire of power.
Upendra Choudhury is an expert on India's space and missile programmes, and he says the space programme is used to benefit a spectrum of sectors like health, education and disaster management.
CHOUDHURY: The space programme is not meant for the elite. It is used for a lot of developmental activities, such as poverty reduction, agricultural purposes, educational purposes, health missions and disaster management. So we can't just see the military implications of the space programme, rather, India has to use its space programme for poverty alleviation, for all of the developmental activities, including health and education.
Source:-
Space on a budget: India's low-cost success story | Asia Pacific | ABC Radio Australia