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Every year, since the Columbia Shuttle disaster, February 1 has been a a day
of mourning for many Indians as it marks the death anniversary of India born
woman astronaut Kalpana Chawla. It also brings into focus the lack of a proper
space program in India. However, two events happened in 2008 that have altered
the implication of Feb 1 from that of sadness to that of hope. The first would
be R Anusha and S Srinath, two second year mechanical engineering students from
College of Engineering, Guindy. Anusha and Srinath made history when they won
the second prize in the global contest for futuristic spacecraft design
conducted by NASA. Anusha and Srinath are not just any winners as their engine
design is actually eco-friendly and the fuel used is a combination of aviation
fuel and bio fuel. The possibilities are endless, Virgin Atlantic experimented
with the fuel on one of their aircrafts and realized it was both green-tech and
more efficient. This will finally throw open aerospace and aviation engineering
for Indian students who had no option but to go to abroad to study these
subjects, if they were interested. More research and projects will mean more
knowledge, jobs and business in these fields. While the media ignored them or
they found mention as a small news item while they concentrated on beauty
pageant winners of Miss World or Miss Universe, this win is more significant as
it will be felt in the years to come.
The second is the success of Chandrayaan-1, Indias first unmanned moon
mission. Indias space program began in 1963 and faced several international
sanctions and problems. India had to come up with a totally home grown space
program, overcome budgetary problems and cynics who questioned the point in
sending another mission to the moon, that too an unmanned mission when others
have already done it? These cynics insisted India could concentrate on getting
rid of poverty and leave scientific pursuits to the more developed, western
countries. What many fail to realize is that space pursuits lead to birth of
completely new technologies, new industries, business opportunities and
employment. The Indian lunar mission costs about $76 mn, designed completely by
Indians due to international sanctions but carried international payloads for
NASA, European Space Agency and other countries. It is the cheapest in the world
and carries double the amount of payloads when compared to China. We are now
officially a space faring nation, one of the five in the whole world.
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Why Should we be Hopeful?
Chandrayaan-1 will try to map not just the geological but also the chemical
and mineralogical composition of the entire surface of the moon. The chemical
mapping will enable us to understand the crust of the moon and conduct further
tests to understand it better. It will also conduct tests to see if there is
presence of ice or water on the surface and sub-surface areas of the moon. The
payloads will also check the north and south poles of the moon in particular,
which have never been tested to see if they have ice formations like Earthboth
above and below the lunar surface.
In 2011, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will send Chandrayaan-2,
which will carry a moon rover to the moon. The moon rover would move on wheels
on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil, rocks, etc; perform chemical
analyses and transmit the data to Chandrayaan-2 that will beam it to the Earth.
A manned moon mission is expected to happen in 2015 when armed with the data,
humans can land on the moon, live on it for a few days, record their
experiences, and get back.
Chandrayaan-1 opens up the space for global space process outsourcing which
includes fabrication and launching. India already fabricates satellites and
launches them for other countries at 1/3rd of the cost that other space-faring
nations demand. This translates to more opportunities for the manufacturing
sector, which has been seeing a slump in 2008. It also means creation of new
businesses and ancillary ones for the space sector. This also means new options
of learning for the next generation engineers produced by Indian colleges with
subjects like aviation and aerospace. ISROs missions will also enable students
to be direct observers. This will do for India what NASA did for the US and
later for all aspiring astronauts from different parts of the world. Now
children who have ever wanted to study aerospace and aviation engineering can
learn and actually participate in designing spacecrafts, rovers, and trains to
be space pilots in India itself. My twelve-year-old niece always wanted to
become an astronaut, as did my friends eleven-year-old son. Now they can, and
who knows in 15 years time they might be actually ferrying people to other
planets on an Indian spacecraft designed by Anusha and Srinath.
Chandrayaan missions will be the foundation of the future of moon tours,
which will be both commercially viable, and the birth of the moon colonya
permanent space outpost inhabited by humans. This moon outpost will be the first
step in our understanding the birth of our own planet and exploring the rest of
our galaxy and other galaxies. With CERN close to developing a spacecraft that
can travel at the speed of light, the USA having successfully explored Mars
through its Phoenix land rover, India trying to set up a permanent outpost on
the moon, and existence of the International Space Station, the Star Trek
inspiration and going where no man has gone before and conquering spacethe
final frontier is much easier than previously imagined. The additional
advantage for India is that it will propel it to make space missions more cost
effective and lead to a development of aerospace engineering and space
technology industries. As Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the former president of India and
the scientist who designed the moon impact probe tells Indian children
oftenDream big and spend your life making it a reality. Nothing is impossible,
as no dream is too big.
Can there be a more perfect homage to Kalpana Chawla and all those who died
trying to conquer the final frontier of space?
The author is the founder-moderator of the
IndianWISE e-group.
(c) Deepa Kandaswamy. First Indian serial rights, CyberMedia 2008.
Any quotes or reprints from this article must link to this article and credit
author Deepa Kandaswamy and Dataquest.
This article may not be distributed or resold in any manner without written
consent from the author.Deepa Kandaswamy
Deepa Kandaswamy
The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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