History was made when India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully entered the Martian orbit. In doing so, India became the first country to enter Mars’ orbit on its first attempt and also the first Asian country to do so. Headlines on India’s maiden Mars mission all include the words ‘low-cost’ or some variation of it. This is a mission that has been budgeted at Rs. 4.5 billion which, by Western standards, is staggeringly cheap. Or at least by director Alfonso Cuaron’s standards, as our Mars mission is onethird the cost of his popular space thriller, Gravity.
I don’t know what else people expected from a country in which families have possibly never bought their own chili flakes because of the existence of Domino’s and its benevolence. While that MOM has entered the Mars orbit, this Mom is currently not buying any Mars or Orbit. This is all to say that cost cutting runs in our blood!
Jokes apart, this low price is due to the extremely clever use of indigenous components, parts, and technologies instead of outsourcing. Also, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists are paid far less than what their counterparts in NASA and other space agencies make. Its scientists receive “standard government department salaries”, therefore keeping the cost of expertise low. Other than this, due to nuclear tests in 1974, ISRO and many other Indian agencies came under restrictive sanctions, cutting them off from western technology like cryogenic engine technology, for instance, which had proved to be a massive obstacle for India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) project. It compelled the scientists to make do with available resources and innovate on shoestring budgets.
While most of us cannot say exactly what the scientific definition of Geosynchronous is – at least not with certainty – what we can definitely do is criticise. Social media has been an outlet for various armchair critics who feel that India faces several problems like poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, inadequate sanitation, and how exactly is a mission to Mars going to solve these problems? Why can’t the money be used instead, towards making India that unachievable utopia that cynics are constantly searching for?
Now if there’s anything I’ve learned from my Economics textbook, it is that investment in science and technology builds capability and capacity, and develops technological and technical know-how, high skills and efficiencythe sort of people who benefit the economy and society more widely.
None of this should be seen as separate or other from our problems, but a long, complex, and ongoing process that will impact the country in several ways. Indian space activity gives India a strong position in international markets for space products and satellite technology. Contrary to popular belief, space missions are not a pastime meant for the wealthy nations, but something that the wealthy nations know to be remunerative and worth investing in – which is why it is a good idea.
Leading the talented team of scientists on the Mars mission was the multi-faceted, 65-year-old, Kerala born Dr. Koppillil Radhakrishnan, the Chairman of ISRO, who described MOM’s success as ‘guided by wisdom and executed by youth’.
Dr. Radhakrishnan, who was decorated with the Padma Bhushan in 2014 for his contribution to science and engineering, has an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, and a Ph.D from IIT-Kharagpur. He has had a distinguished career, and a long list of accomplishments that span 40 years in space technology, applications and space programme management. He has been variously described as ‘a technocrat par excellence’, an ‘astute institution-builder with a strategic vision’, and an ‘inspiring leader’ credited with nurturing leadership skills in the younger generation.
While his contribution to science and technology are known to all, few are aware that Dr. Radhakrishnan is a keen Kathakali dancer and Carnatic vocal singer too! He has excelled in music, dance and other art forms, and given vocal stage performances. Though a man of science, the ISRO chairman offered prayers before the launch, at the Tirupati Venkateswara temple about 100 km from the launch pad, with miniature replicas of the rocket and the Mars Orbiter spacecraft. Asked by the media if he was under pressure before the big event, he is reported to have smiled and said, “There’s nothing like pressure if you keep doing your work.
– A. Radhakrishnan
‘Mangalyaan’ or the Mars Orbiter spacecraft is equipped with an instrument that will try to measure methane in the atmosphere. The hypothesis has been that some methanogens could perhaps exist on Mars if they lived underground, away from the planet’s harsh surface conditions. So no, uh, green aliens with antennae, four eyes, and a computer embedded into their stomachs just yet. That will require some technology beyond our means at the moment. Watch a few sci-fi movies, maybe. Or Teletubbies. It’s all the same to me.
Aside from all these economic and scientific benefits, it fulfills the most primitive of human instincts when it seeks to answer questions about life, climate, and the loss of a large bulk of the atmosphere of Mars; this instinct being curiosity. I’m no scientist, so I don’t know what makes this rocket power towards Mars, with such specificity in all that vast expanse of space, but I do know that it is an apt metaphor for our country. It may seem small and seemingly insignificant on the Atlas’ center page, but this is proof that we can make ourselves heard and noticed.
Centuries ago, in this country, the concept of ‘zero’ was first put into use. And now, a combination of ones and zeros, pumps, titanium, rocket fuel, engines, and a whole lot of pride and hard work has gone into the Mangalyaan that sets out to plant the figurative ‘flag’ of India on the Final Frontier, and I have no doubt it will succeed.
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Nayanika Nambiar
The writer is an Arts student at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She is a voracious reader and enjoys writing and working on her blog.[/column]