Can India afford the moon mission?

By: vineeth

Bangalore : India | about 1 month ago

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Handout picture provided by ISRO shows the surface of the moon

Source: Reuters

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Handout picture provided by ISRO shows the surface of the moon

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India takes giant leap to the moon!

It will be a small step for mankind, but a giant leap forward for India. The Indian Tricolor was planted on the lunar surface when the Moon Impact Probe successfully "crashlanded" at 8:31 pm Friday after being ejected from Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned spacecraft to the moon. India's quest for the envious "Superpower" tag just clinched another vote with this uninhibited 239,000 mile journey to our lone natural satellite.

One of India's aims in reaching the moon is the possibility of harvestin helium 3, a key fuel for nuclear fusion. Although fusion is not commercially viable today, scientists say it one day will be, and that once it is a fuel, supply will become a problem, as the Earth is believed to have only 15 tones of helium 3. The moon is thought to contain up to 5m tones.

Another awe-inspiring fact is the shoestring budget within which ISRO worked to flag off this lunar mineral wealth exploration. The annual ISRO budget of one billion dollars is meager as compared to the 20 billion dollars of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ISRO has on its agenda three more missions to the moon, and one to the Mars. ISRO is aiming for a second lunar mission by the end of 2010 or early 2011, carrying a Russian-made rover that will collect rock and soil samples from the moon’s surface for further analysis. By 2015, India hopes to send up two astronauts to study the moon and even land astronauts on the moon by 2020.

India shining reinforced!

Vinny’s take: India has arrived, ready to rub shoulders with US and Japan? Chandrayaan’s cost of $86m might be miniscule compared to the $480m spent by Japan for the Selene Mission, but can India afford it? Call me a critic, but I cannot garner enough reasons for the justification of this unwanted mission. Is it our ego which craves us to seek recognition from the world. In the process are we neglecting more serious problems like solving the communal disharmony our nation is embroiled in. Shouldn’t we spend more on solving the grass root problems of our nation before we can showcase our expertise on the larger one. ISRO’s rhetoric on mineral exploration may have substance (leave alone the lunar land grab debate) but is it essential at a time of spiraling financial crisis across the globe . Power crisis looms large and shouldn’t the best brains in our country be working towards a more realistic solution. India could be spending the money on getting clean drinking water to the poor, get food in their belly. Instead it chooses to blast its way into a space war!

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Tags: space exploration, ISRO, chandrayaan, India on moon, helium 3

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Post A Comment Comments: 12

Posted By GoGreen | about 1 month ago | Spam

This is an excellent report vineeth. It's particularly good because you've given your own perspective on this news. I absolutely agree with you that this moon mission was an especially bad decision in light of the global economic crisis. Also, you're right that the government should have the best minds in your country working on more realistic solutions, and there are great minds in India. The government's priorities are not right.

I respect your country and people, and I agree with you that the Indian government could've better spent this money on clear water, etc. as you mentioned. It's terribly frustrating when governments or people (including my own) do not properly address critical issues such as poverty, population control, the environment, clean energy technology, peace, etc. but instead get distracted chasing power, unsustainable energy resources, etc. Thank for speaking out.

Reply By pastery | about 1 month ago | Spam

It is important to realize that collecting nations (and the global society) is something good even for the economical crisis. A great deal of the economical growth in the US during the 20th century can be derived from the fact that they collected the predominant part of the scientific community around the effort to reach the moon. Many people tend to forget the goodwill effect of having a common goal to works towards and the positive spinoff effects it will have.

I think you also forget the effect the success in such an effort will have on the whole nation especially if you feel them all part of the success. "We created this. We accomplished it." Too many people overlook this. I blame it on the overly belief that you can look at the cost for a project without considering the stimulative effects it might have. Basically it is a flaw in the capitalistic theory that does primarily look at the ROI, not the SROI (Social Return of Investment) and the stimulative effect. These too are notoriously hard to define and estimate why I believe many forget them. However we should not forget they exist and give it some time to judge before we have all the data at hand.

Posted By amra1 | about 1 month ago | Spam

Yes but this is hope for the people that they can do anything if they decide to do it! It is inspiration for the Indians and the world. It is awesome that India could achieve this mission at such a low budget

Reply By pastery | about 1 month ago | Spam

Agreed. We need to start to broaden our visions here. We need more metrics than the simple ROI. Looking at this effort you would foolishly believe that that the ROI should be low. Ultimately efforts such as these are good for the economy not bad. We need to start recognizing that the growth in countries are more than just the flow of capital but the knowledge capital has a tremendous effect on the growth. This is so often forgotten in the debates about national growth. Why? It has been shown that national economy growth has more factors than the old models. Too few seem to be aware of Paul Romer's the New Growth Theory even though it is far from new.

It is an easier economical world if you do not take in factors that hard to measure such as the collective efficient knowledge of a country. Ironically increasing the average level of education in countries will also have a very positive effect on other issues in our society such as understanding of different cultures, ethnicity, religion and political differences. I guess that is something many people forget out of convenience or just pure reluctance.

Reply By amra1 | about 1 month ago | Spam

Agreed, with Knowledge grows tolerance and ability to look at a problem differently. The knowledge can be used in multiple industries and can be applied to solve different problems.... well beyond the return on one problem and industry

Posted By BiodunIginla | about 1 month ago | Spam

excellent report, vinny!

with India aspart of BRIC (Brazil-russia-india-china), and with the global systemic economic failure, the shift from the West to South Asia and Southeast Asia seem complete...

Posted By maanasi | about 1 month ago | Spam

I think it is very difficult to comprehensively say whether it is a good or bad decision by India.It will be good if it does help in solving some of the problems mentioned above, especially power crisis. On the other hand, it does pinch sometimes to see that amount of money (yeah...1 billion is a big deal) to be spent on something at this so seeming futile and patriotic.But I think if one waits enough, there will be some results out of it (or we will forget, whichever is earlier)

Posted By Eswar | about 1 month ago | Spam

The debate whether developing nations like India spend more on development than Space program has multiple dimensions. U.S. former U.S.S.R, Japan the pioneers in Lunar missions are super powers with ecomomic muscle to pump millions into their lunar missions. India on the contrary being a young nation and the only country from developing world to achieve the feat within a budget of $86 million. India has been spending more (more than 1 billion $) on welfare programs like the five year plans, NHAI (National highway projects), Interlinking of rivers (estimated $3billion) and even more on armed forces for national security. A point to be noted that inspite of facing the endless list of challenges like clean drinking water,affordable health care, eradicating illetracy, population control etc, which are charecteristic of developing world India has done a rare feat which can inspire the other developing nations like Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa,Thailand, Philipines, and Indonesia. There is also a commercial angle to the Indian space program, India is the first country to launch "Edusat " a satillite dedicated for education, and India has successfully placed 4 Korean satellites in its orbits in the recent PLV mission and developed reusable rockets which can reduce the cost of space programs. The success of the moon mission "Chandrayaan" could boost India's International image as a seriour player in Commercial space programs. It might take some decades for India to fullfil the demands for health care and clean drinking water, the opportunity cost of de-prioritisng the Indian space program could cost heavily. India might lose the edge of being a leading player in global space arena and may lose talent like noble laurates like Sir Chanda Sekar Venkat Raman (N.A.S.A Chandra observatory named after him) Dr.Hargobind Khorana who won nobels working in U.S. The issues of public welfare and development at the cost of "Space program" may not be the best of alternatives as India already has a dedicated departments working for public welfare. Indian scientists, the government and the citizens are to be congratulated for the success of their moon mission Chandrayan. Way to go India!!!

Posted By amra1 | about 1 month ago | Spam

This is great conversation, Vineeth thank you for a great contribution!

Reply By BiodunIginla | about 1 month ago | Spam

ditto!!!..what amra said...

Posted By MarcusCato | about 1 month ago | Spam

I believe this is a great achievement for which the Indian people can be justly proud. Space is humanity's next frontier and in the coming centuries our children and our children's children will venture into the unknown to learn more and to harness the riches that lie beyond our planet.