by Rudresh Pandey
With the tricolour landing
on the Moon on 14th novmember 2008, India had become the fifth
member of this so called elete club. It
was even called a new chapter in the history of India's space exploration. Others
to reach the Moon are the US, former Soviet Union, Japan (even though by a
malfunction and its orbiter crashed on the lunar surface) and the European
Space Agency.
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Former Indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, center right,
greets Indian Space Research Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, center
left, soon after India's Moon Impact Probe successfully landed on the lunar
surface, in Bangalore, India, Friday, Nov. 14, 2008.
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In april 1975 India’s first
satellite, Aryabhata, was launched. ISRO has grown from its initial start as hanger-on
to Soviet Union to the top three Asian space agencies (with China’s CNSA and
Japan’s JAXA).
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| Aryabhata Launched on19 April'75 |
Today ISRO is a important partner in numerous international
space projects. Chandrayaan-2 is an ambitious project of ISRO with Russian
Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) an agreement was signed between the two
agencies on November 12, 2007, to work jointly
ISRO has the prime responsibility for the orbiter and rover, Roskosmos is to
provide lander. (Design of the space craft was completed in August 2009 and ISRO
finalized the payload for Chandrayaan-2 per schedule). The mission is rescheduledto 2016 as Roskosmos was unable to develop the lander on time.
ISRO has worked brilliantly with its mission to support
India’s development goals. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai,the visionary leader envisioned that pace activities could play a meaningfulrole in national development and solving the problems of common man. ISRO has successfully operationalised two major satellite systems namely
Indian National Satellites (INSAT) for communication services and Indian Remote
Sensing (IRS) satellites for management of natural resources; also, Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching IRS type of satellites and
Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for launching INSAT type of
satellites. India’s space program started in 1962 and has grown exponentially from
its humble beginnings as the Indian National Committee on Space Research
(INCOSPAR). The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), set up in 1969, is INCOSPAR’s
successor.
Insat satellites, with their unique weather sensors, are a
good example of ISRO’s traditional approach. Insat satellites were at first
launched mostly by Europe’s Ariane and are now being put into orbit by India’s
own Geosynchronous Space Launch Vehicle (GSLV). This technology is entirely
homegrown with minimum foreign input as possible. This policy of ISRO and has
resulted in development of its own industrial base and has saved costs. Chandrayaan
1 represented a major break from this tradition. ISRO incorporated instrument
packages from Britain, Germany, Russia, Sweden, and the USA. USA also altered
its approach from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) for Chandrayaan 1 mission.
With China’s Chang’e-3 and the lunar rover Yutu (Jade
Rabbit) landing - China’s first soft landing on the lunar surface on
Saturday, .
we again face a question - why travel to the moon at all? We Indians have more questions
to it. Are we in a race with China?
As far as Moon is
concerned the answer is very clear. The moon has minerals to supply us materials
depleting from Earth. Moon gives us the base test technologies needed to
explore space and future space technologies. China has more to this reason; its
key objective is to show the world China’s “technological power” and “military
muscles”. India on the other hand has never used ISRO to showcase its muscles infect
ISRO demonstrated that Space program can be cost effective. Against our over enthusiastic media ISRO has
not been in competition with China. But yes
it is for sure that space technology will be an interesting area to look for.
