Space, Sanitation, and Sceptics

The Indian Space Research Organisation, on 24th September 2014, successfully placed the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft in an orbit around Mars.

Two celestial bodies having a heart-to-heart

The flight took 298 days, from the launch to the successful insertion, and every aspect of this celestial journey worked out perfectly, as planned. Mangalyaan (मंगलयान), as MOM is also known as, is not the only spacecraft studying Mars from a 'close' proximity. Regardless, it did fill us Indians with a sense of pride about this significant achievement by our rocket scientists! There were however a few firsts, that MOM was able to achieve -

• India became the first country to successfully reach the Mars orbit on its maiden attempt. NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, the other space agencies to have reached the Mars orbit, had all been unsuccessful in their first few attempts.
• The technology demonstration by Mangalyaan has been achieved with a low cost of ₹ 454 crore (US $ 74 million), the lowest ever for a Mars probe.
• India has been the only Asian country to have been successful in a Mars mission. Russia is part Asia, though.

Mangalyaan is now successfully orbiting Mars and sending data and images to ISRO scientists as part of its other mission objectives.

A clichéd critique

The successful Mars mission brought with it some bouquets, as well as the usual brickbats, from around the developed world, as also from a certain breed of the Indian 'intelligentsia'. The criticism bordered around India's poverty and all the associated woes, more specifically the lack of toilets among India's millions. Sample some of these disapproving voices -

• Should a country with 'one of the highest rankings for childhood malnutrition in the world' be involved in space race?
• The Mars mission 'seems to be part of the Indian elite's delusional quest for superpower status'.
• India's Mars fantasy defies earthly woes.

In fact, this is a template followed by pretty much every media house, after every such technological breakthrough by India, and possibly by any other developing nation. Such stories would always start with a brief about the achievement, followed by the cost involved and then a lesson in poverty 101. India's going nuclear, numerous satellite launches, Chandrayaan, among others, are just a few cases in point. Here is one online enthusiast commenting on similar lines on a similar Al Jazeera article. The gentleman never got back to me.

While not entirely off the mark about India's poverty, such discourse always conveniently omits the cost-effective manner in which India has been accomplishing such technological feats. In fact, one of the primary objective of MOM was to demonstrate the low cost alternatives which India can provide for such interplanetary space probes.

Dr. Vikram Sarabhai's Vision & Narendra Modi's Mission

India's space research and space missions have always been grounded in reality. It has been a means to achieve the upliftment of India's impoverished millions - try solve real problems of man and society. It is not without significant dividends that India has been pursuing its space missions. The vast array of Indian satellites, like those of the developed world, has been able to successfully predict storms, cyclones and monsoon. Chandrayaan-1 was instrumental in the discovery of water molecules on the Moon. And as I mentioned in my comment, ISRO does generate considerable revenue for its own operations by providing cost-effective satellite launch services to various nations of the world, including the developed nations.

Space research and working towards better sanitation with poverty alleviation in a country of 1.25 billion people doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. The Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi, for one, has been consistent in pushing the message of cleanliness and proper sanitation from all platforms in India, and abroad. In fact during the electioneering an year ago, he raked up controversy by asking us Indians to build toilets before building temples. In keeping with the goal for a cleaner India and a toilet in every home, a Swachh Bharat Mission ensues from 2nd October 2014. He has asked for a commitment from every Indian to give some time towards a clean India. I have my own plans for contributing to the cause. And as with many other areas that have benefited, I am sure our scientific and technological prowess would contribute to the success of this mission.

PM Modi after the successful Mangalyaan insertion said, "When you are trying to do something that has not been attempted before, it is a leap into the dark. Humanity would not have progressed if we had not taken such leaps into the unknown. And space is indeed the biggest unknown out there." There still will be naysayers, but, let us push our boundaries, and then push some more, push some more.

-MT