Going to space

India is doubling down on its space mission and that is a good thing. There are many more miles to achieve

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has outlined an ambitious plan to not just launch many more satellites in the coming years, but has also said that India plans to have a man (or woman) up in space by 2022. This was also one of the many announcements made by Prime Minister Modi during his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort this week. According to ISRO chief K Sivan, technologies to send astronauts to space have already been developed. This is not a new plan, it has been in the process since 2004 and the Planning Commission okayed the project in 2009 which has a budget outlay of Rs 10,000 crore. This is a huge outlay of funds for a country that is in desperate need for social projects and infrastructure buildout. However, there is no doubt that sending an Indian astronaut into the space will grab headlines and will make us an undoubted leader in space technology, not something to be sneezed at. This assumes that India is not already a leader in space technology. We have sent some incredible missions up to space, including the impressive Chandrayaan mission, which will be followed up this January, if there are no more delays, with the Chandrayaan-II mission that aims to land a robotic rover on the moon. Elections be damned, ISRO has more up its sleeve. Solar probe Aditya (obviously) takes off just months after American space agency NASA’s daring Parker solar probe. There are an estimated 31 launches scheduled from now until the end of 2019 and the manned space mission by 2022 is an icing on the cake. Sivan believes that over 15,000 highly skilled jobs will be created through this mission.

There is no doubt that in the US at least, the manned space missions and the later Apollo programme initiated by President John F Kennedy had a massive impact. Not only in making the US a leader in space exploration — the Americans are the only nation to have had probes go into deep space — but in supercharging that nation’s high technology industry thanks to development of computer technology. Can India’s concentration on space do the same for us? Yes, it can and that is why it is important. Technology can solve many problems and India cannot remain to be a net importer of technology; we need to develop our own systems, hardware and software. If done smartly, there will be a flow of technology from ISRO to India’s private sector. To cite an example, ISRO has offered its lithium-ion battery technology to interested car manufacturers as the world shifts to electric vehicles. Make no mistakes, India is a leader in space technology. And while we might one day join the Americans, Russians and the Chinese in having sent an astronaut into space, we are far ahead of the rest. The world is jealous of us, notable in that racist cartoon in The New York Times mocking us, and the Daily Mail in the UK railing against the fact that a one-time dominion is so far ahead of Britain’s moribund space industry. Sure, we are still a country with millions of poor and malnourished and the ironies apparent in a high-technology programme while open defecation and illiteracy remain a problem are not lost on anyone. But India’s space programme can weirdly help us lift many out of poverty, directly through improved satellite technology and indirectly by the boost it will give our economy, let alone the booster shot of pride.