Chandrayaan: To be or Not to be?

Article Written By: Amit Abhyankar

    When ISRO announced its first Lunar Mission- Chandrayaan, Mylswami Annadurai, its Project Chief, must have been well aware of the tough road ahead. And it is proving to be one as well; not because of any technical deficiencies, but from a speculation that is making rounds in media & some sections of society (including few political groups); a speculation that ISRO is going to squander billions of rupees, in a country, a very ‘poor’ country I may add, like India on a mission, which lacks in novelty & instrumentality. The allegations are based on the hypothesis that ISRO is actually wasting crores of rupees on something which has been achieved by some countries decades ago. “What’s justification in sending unmanned spacecraft on moon, where we all know Uncle Sam has actually landed years ago”, the questions are raised, “and that too at the expense of ‘socio-economical’ advancement of millions of poverty-stricken people”?

    Now let us hear the other side of the story. I think it’s high time we stop harping about our poverty. Indian economy is too big (worth $ 600 billion) to be rattled by such ‘petty expenses’. Yes, they are petty expenses, when compared to other economic indices. We are going to spend trillions of rupees in next 7 years on mere highway development. In our annual budget we can provide for 102 billion rupees for Tsunami relief, hundred billions on Infrastructure & Health! Look at these figures and compare them with the cost of Chandrayaan, which is only 3.8 billion rupees! Can’t we afford that? We certainly can.

Another query, allegation to be precise, is that what we are aiming at is already achieved by others many years ago. Agreed that few countries have successfully landed on moon, that too decades ago. But that does not mean whatever we are going to do is totally useless. We all know how technology has progressed by leaps & bounds over the years. Obviously there have been plenty of technological innovations since the last moon mission. Hence with newer gadgets accompanying our spacecraft, we would be in a position to amass data that would be totally new, not only for us, but also for entire world. Our mission objective includes carrying out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote sensing payloads. The new set of data would help in unraveling mysteries about the origin and evolution of solar system in general and that of the moon in particular. During two years of its flight, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The Polar Regions are of special interest, as they might contain water ice.
And the latest news suggests that a lunar orbiter being built by India may be hauling a U.S. radar experiment designed by US Department of Defense to help unravel whether the Moon’s poles contain pockets of water ice. Prospect for another such high-tech Radar accompanying Chandrayaan is subject to approval of ISRO. So look who is dictating terms here. There’s race amongst nations, a fierce competition, to put their payloads on India’s Chandrayaan. And guess who’s in the race? NASA, ESA, Bulgaria & others. NASA has already announced its intention to send M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) with our spacecraft, headed for a September 2007 liftoff, if………only if………, ISRO selects it in an independent competition. Here we are, calling shots for the first time in field of Space thanks to this project. Can we still label it as useless?

Even countries like China, Japan are very much interested in carrying out similar lunar missions. But they can’t (at least in near future), because they don’t have half of the technical know-how required for such mission. But we do. And that’s why we are going to do. Just imagine we carrying out the project successfully……we would be joining a very very elite club. It would increase India’s status as a potential partner in future space explorations. This way, we would qualify ourselves to participate in international programmes in this area. It would open immense possibilities, lots & lots of opportunities.

Some might say, why not aim directly at mars, just like US is doing? I would say it would be like asking a student from secondary school to prepare thesis for Ph.D.! We will one day reach mars…….definitely…….. but the process has to be gradual. Let us successfully complete out Chandra-mission first, then to bhaiya ……….Pluto bhi door nahi………