Chandrayaan-1, the first Indian spacecraft sent to the moon, began its voyage on Oct. 22 from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh, India, carrying 11 scientific instruments, including five of its own and six from various other space agencies. It also carried the aspiration of a billion people.
The aim of the mission is to map the surface of the moon in its entirety — a task that has not yet been attempted. Though this investment helped India join the ranks of previous lunar explorers (NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan and China), it is considered a rather expensive endeavor, costing almost $4 billion. In terms of social impact, however, it certainly promises to be a large leap forward.
Although applause for the mission was nearly unanimous, there has been a smattering of disapproving grunts that criticize India's heavy investment in a non-utilitarian program. Opponents question how India, a Third World country, can afford to spend so much money on something as seemingly trivial as probing the surface of the moon. Given that 25 percent of its population lives under the national poverty line, could India have better spent the $4 billion on food aid?
On the surface, the argument seems to make sense. Imagine the following (with a melancholic, Bollywood-style violin note in the background): On one side stand 250 million hungry citizens waiting in line for the food that could save their lives, and on the other side, the button to the moon waits to be pushed. The humane thing to do in such a situation, no doubt, would be to immediately turn away from the launch station and hand over the $4 billion to feed the hungry. If one looks past the surface of this argument, however, the need for long-term strategies, such as investments in technology, becomes obvious.
Economic growth and human development are inseparable and intricately woven into the fabric of national development. The current generation of "software Indians" best exemplifies an instance where economic growth and human development have progressed hand in hand. When the IT boom arrived — thanks to the investments in science education that their ancestors had so wisely made — Indians were ready to hop on the bandwagon and enjoy its enormous economic benefits. Therefore, Indians, or anyone for that matter, will do well if they remember that the key to future prosperity is technology rather than capital. Space technology could do for India what industrial technology did for Britain; automobile, nuclear and pharmaceutical technology for the United States; chemical technology for Germany; wind technology for Denmark; food technology for the Netherlands; and banking technology for Switzerland. India must learn from its mistake of ignoring the ‘genome' bandwagon. With its highly skilled and scientifically non-conservative workforce, Indian genetic engineers, similar to their software counterparts, could have been the heroes of what is now someone else's success story.
The fact that the Indian space program has become a successful commercial enterprise should allay the concerns of critics who are wary of India investing in advanced and seemingly non-utilitarian technologies. The hope is that India's space programs can easily be self-sustained if Antrix, the corporate face of the Indian Space Research Organization, can attract at least a fraction of the multi-billion-dollar space technology market. With only a few countries possessing the expertise on space technology and India being the cheapest resource, it would hardly be surprising to see India becoming a star player in the space market.
In my opinion, by deciding to invest in space programs, India has taken the right step in the direction of national development. As the saying goes, "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for a day.Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime." There is little doubt that the space boom will do for the new generation of Indian engineers, mathematicians and physicists what the software boom did for the current one. I believe that India has done itself immense good by embarking on this futuristic space program. After all, isn't it high time that Indians dream beyond becoming the faceless voice answering a 1-800 call?
--
Ranjith Anand is pursuing a Ph.D. in biology.
