Drawing the world’s attention to its space programme, India successfully launched its Mars-bound spacecraft Mangalyaan, to probe for life on Mars. The Mars Orbiter Mission, as Mangalyaan is also called, took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and is set to travel for 300 days, reaching Mars orbit in 2014.
Only the US, Europe, and Russia have sent probes that have orbited or landed on Mars. Probes to the red planet have a high failure rate; so a success will be a boost for the nation, particularly for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), especially after a similar mission by China failed to leave Earth’s orbit in 2011.
Indian media stood up in unison to applaud the launch. The Times Of India regarded it as a “creative blend of Indian scientific ingenuity and frugal engineering”, arguing its success would place ISRO in “a different orbit” for the launch was managed “on a shoestring budget of just Rs 450 crore.”
“With NASA and other foreign space agencies increasingly looking to outsource space missions to rein in profligacy, ISRO could compete for these multi-billiondollar contracts.. (which) would lead to... generating a large number of skilled jobs,” the paper projected.
The Indian Express carried an editorial by Amitabha Ghosh, a member of the chair on the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission, who argued that ISRO should have focused on “other important issues” than Mangalyaan, contending that “the 15 months taken to develop the spacecraft is worrisome. NASA/ESA missions have 36 to 48 months of development time and a significant portion of their hardware has been validated on previous missions”.
If successful, “Mangalyaan will replicate what NASA accomplished in the 1960s and 1970s”, which would “hardly be a novel accomplishment in the world of technology.” The Hindustan Times devoted an entire page to what it called “India’s Moment”, while The Hindu contended that if successful, “it will have stolen a march on its Asian rivals”. “Questions about the worth whileness of the space programme are nothing new. Studies have, however, shown that the country has more than recouped the money it invested in space. But those returns were not immediate and took decades to materialise. It is difficult to predict all the benefits that might accrue from something like the Mars mission, some of which may be intangible but nevertheless vital for the country in the long run. The most important of such benefits could well be to fire the imagination of young minds in this country, getting them to dream about possibilities for tomorrow,” The Hindu opined.
While the Mission was lauded in the Indian media, the Western media was conspicuously cautious in welcoming the successful launch.
The China Daily said China and India must work together to explore space instead of being engaged in “aerospace competition”. Ye Hailin, an expert on South Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the paper the Indian launch should be interpreted rationally as “a great achievement” of India that also deserves applause from the rest of the world. But the South China Morning Post contended that the neighbours need to avoid competition, adding “The governments of mainland China and India are not the only ones in Asia interested in space. Japan and South Korea also have well-advanced programmes. There are myriad benefits of space exploration, but in the case of China and India there is also the risk of fuelling regional tensions, militarisation and confrontation.”
The Guardian noted: “A plunging currency, ailing economy and the state’s seeming inability to deliver basic services have led many Indians to question whether their nation is quite as close to becoming a global superpower as it seemed in the heady years of the last decade when economic growth pushed the 10%. For a government beset by charges of corruption and mismanagement, the Mars mission is one way to repair its battered image.
Mainstream American media described the launch as a “technological leap” and “a symbolic coup” against China in this field. “If it succeeds, India’s Mars Mission would represent a technological leap for the South Asia nation, pushing it ahead of space rivals China and Japan in the field of interplanetary exploration,” wrote The Wall Street Journal. “A successful mission by India’s Mars orbiter would make the country the first Asian nation to reach the red planet — and provide a symbolic coup as neighbouring China steps up its ambitions in space,” the CNN reported, adding that this has given further credence to claims of an intensifying space race developing in Asia, with potentially dangerous ramifications.
The Wall Street Journal also had a live blog, peppered with trivia and a touch of humour: “Just a few minutes before India sends its first spacecraft to Mars, the Twitterati has started counting down. #Mangalyaan, which translates to ‘Mars craft’ in Hindi, is amongst the top trends in India. What’s trending above #Mangalyaan? #HappyBirthdayVirat, in honor of Indian cricketer Virat Kohli who celebrates his 25th birthday today.”
Critics questioning the cost, strategy and even the experience of ISRO in the western media only smacks of racism and prejudice. The ISRO has undoubtedly given Indians something to feel proud of, and set young minds on fire. Professionally, the Mission is only a success for scientists across the world, who have been grappling to learn more about Mars for decades and failure of other missions has not abated but only added to the pursuit of knowledge about life on Mars. Therefore, nothing is a failure or a waste when it advances even a bit of knowledge that can go a long way in solving a larger puzzle.
Feedback: abatra@exchange4media.com
