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INDIA'S SPACE ODYSSEY
By SIDDHARTH SRIVASTAVA
India's capabilities in space sciences have received a fresh
fillip. USA has evinced keen interest in placing a payload aboard India's
first spacecraft to the moon, Chandrayan-I.
Many believe that the US intention to place a payload on Chandrayan-I is a
major area of engagement between the two countries. It is a reflection of
the changed perceptions in the US following years of suspicion about the
Indian space entity's alleged involvement in transgressing stringent US laws
to obtain dual use high-technology items. This had impeded cooperation
during a time when India and US were reined either side of the cold-war
alignments. India considers its missile, space and nuclear programmes as
closely inter-linked, with nuclear deterrence against Pakistan and China and
benefits to the people through satellite technology and nuclear energy being
critical factors.
The government controlled Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is
leading India's attempt to join the elite lunar club. ISRO has said that the
Indian lunar mission will not be an exercise in reinventing the wheel and be
a quantum jump. The mission is being viewed by ISRO as a stepping-stone to
far more ambitious projects in future that include landing a robot on the
lunar surface and visits by the Indian spacecrafts to other planets of solar
system.
In an additional boost, ISRO has also announced that the country's first
fully commercial satellite launch will take place around April or May when
the Italian satellite Agile will be carried to outer space aboard the Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) C-8. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair made the
announcement. Talking to news reporters Nair said India's launch vehicles
were cost-effective. ''It will be a great opportunity for us if we can
capture at least 10 % in the launch business, which is worth $ 2 billion in
the international market,'' he said.
For India, which began its space journey in a modest way in 1963 with a
launch of a 9-kilo rocket from a research facility at the fishing hamlet of
Thumba in southern state of Kerala, the Chandrayan-I marks a quantum leap.
India's unmanned scientific mission to moon that was approved in 2004, moved
high on New Delhi's priority list in the wake of China's successful manned
mission of October 2003.
The scientific objectives of Chandrayan-I that should zoom into space in
2007-8 at the head of the four-stage Indian built space vehicle – Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) include preparation of the three dimensional
atlas of the regions on the moon and the chemical mapping of the entire
lunar surface. India will then join the elite club of space faring nations
that have the wherewithal to undertake such complex and challenging space
missions.
The $ 80 million Chandrayan-I project has elicited a positive response from
John Hopkins University and a miniature synthetic aperture radar instrument
from the varsity's Applied Physics lab is being set up in collaboration with
NASA. The mission will open a new chapter in the Indo-US space ties that did
start on a positive note back in the early 1960s when the US set up the
Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, but subsequently fizzled out due
to sanctions.
In the changed scenario of increased Indo-US co-operation that has extended
to nuclear energy and defense, Space has been identified as one key area of
engagement in the joint statement between India and US in January 2004 that
outlined the next steps in strategic partnership. Seven months later in a
high-profile conference of experts, diplomats and business representatives
from both countries, a vision document was prepared that outlined the broad
areas of collaboration, which included: earth observation science,
technology and related applications; satellite communications technology and
applications; satellite navigation and applications; earth and space
science; natural hazards and disaster management support; education and
training in space. A joint working group on space cooperation has been
discussing the issue, since.
ISRO is developing two categories of rocket – the PSLV's are designed for
earth observation and scientific missions, such as remote sensing satellites
(such Cartosat-1 launched last year) and Chandrayaan. The larger
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV), deliver communications
satellites into geo stationary orbits 36,000 km above the earth where they
can ``hover'' over the same place. The GSLV motors form the critical stages
of operations of the long range Agni missiles that are capable of delivering
nuclear payloads.
India's Agni project was launched in the late 80s has been under the US
microscope, with the country using every persuasive power, including
sanctions to delay it. The progress in missile technology has happened
concomitantly with the strides in space research as the motors used in the
launch vehicles of satellites have been incorporated into missiles.
Keeping India's interest in overcoming hurdles in procuring dual use
technologies, by getting US export control procedures simplified, the Indian
Parliament last year passed the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their
Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Bill which the
government has emphasized does not ``in any manner constrict'' India's
nuclear programme, either strategic or civilian. The nuclear bill is
important in light of India's emergence as a ``nuclear State,'' and meets
the country's commitments under the United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1540 passed in April 2004.
In the past decade, ISRO has launched eight PSLV and three GSLV without
encountering any failure. Last May, Cartosat-1 became the 12th successful
consecutive launch in 12 successive years. Cartosat-1 joined what is
already the world's largest cluster of non-military remote sensing
satellites. Six Indian spacecraft are already observing the earth with a
wide range of instruments. The INSAT series of satellites have given 90 % of
the population access to satellite television, with the most recent launch
Edusat for building a distant learning network. The Indian launch vehicles
are not yet powerful enough for India's heaviest satellites, which have been
launched on Europe's Ariane. But ISRO plans to become self-sufficient in
this sector from 2008, when its GLSV-3 launcher is due to be ready to
heavier satellites.
Many feel that the time is ripe for India to embark on a government led
campaign to win launch orders from other countries by putting competitive
bids, especially to developing countries. As in several other fields, India
can follow the lead taken by China that has joined hands with Brazil and won
an order in 2004 to build and launch a communications satellite for Nigeria.
Russia, USA and Europe continue to lead the world in space launches followed
by China.
The launch of Agile will be a watershed. India may launch Russian satellites
for a global navigational system this year. ISRO is also slated to send an
Indonesian micro-satellite into space this year. The target, as expounded by
Nair, is to garner 10 % share of all commercial space launches in the world
in the next five years.
More than three decades ago, Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the architect of the Indian
space programme outlined what he considered should be India's objectives in
space. "We don't have the fantasy of competing with the economically
advanced nations in the exploration of the moon or manned flights. But we
are convinced that to play a meaningful role nationally and in the community
of the nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced
technologies to the real problem of man and society which we find in our
country."
India is on its way.
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