Allan Jacob :
STARTING SMALL and creating big on a midget budget is now the stuff of reality. Dreams of sighting extraterrestrials, of humans lapping up the milky way, or the mother of all alien invasions can wait. Space technology is coming home to earth as mortals like us reach for the stars and settle for the planets. Nasa recently announced 1.2 million names were submitted on their website, while others signed their names on pages which were scanned and made into microscopic scale. These were then etched on two chips the size of a coin to be shipped to Mars aboard the Curiosity Rover spacecraft. The agency said people from 246 countries participated in this mass digital movement to the Red Planet.
Some weeks ago, a tight-fisted $74 million state-funded package for an epic journey to the mysterious planet earned plaudits. It was a cheap leap for spatial technology and its applications here on earth.
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was a budgeted blockbuster for it tempered expenses without lowering expectations, while its benefits for humanity must be measured once the applause has died down.
It was at once inexpensive, inhouse, innovative and got the fundamentals of exploration and human enquiry right – to probe (not conquer) a distant planet for the benefit of all people. It succeeded, more so, in shedding the elitist tag associated with space travel and gave hope to those with small pockets in developing countries to envision a vehicle to space and nurture galactic ambitions in their own humble way.
Take the case of an auto-rickshaw (Indian commercial three-wheeler city commute vehicle) driver in the Indian city of Bengaluru who declined the fare offered by a scientist who hired him for a ride to the space organisation’s headquarters. He gushed at how they managed to restart the spacecraft’s engine after 10 months for the final fling into the Martian orbit. The driver asked the scientist, who had by now acquired rockstar status, if he could improve the electronics of the humble rickshaw and help it survive potholes without him having to incur additional expenses on maintenance during the monsoons.
Space programmes have driven improvements in telecommunications, weather forecasting and navigation, as natural disasters sweep the world. They have helped save the planet and its ecology by sounding early warnings. Farmers have been forewarned of climatic changes which have given them time to plan their crops.
Over decades of exploration, advances have been made in satellite remote sensing, global navigation satellites and geographic information systems. Ecological, environmental and other data from above have contained the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever. New knowhow can encompass remote regions and stop the spread of serious diseases like Ebola which are currently ravaging West Africa.
Such missions spur interest in technology and promote high-end infrastructure developments in South Asia and across the world. There are also strategic benefits which could be harnessed by defence establishments in the region to upgrade surveillance and missile arsenal.
Commercially, Asia could become an affordable hub for space travel, and Western programmes of this nature can take a leaf out the South Asian country’s book. Asian nations that once relied on American, Russian and European expertise to launch satellites for telecom and meteorological purposes, now have indigenous and thriving programmes.
China, Japan, Iran, South Korea and even the shadowy North Koreans have successfully developed and deployed satellites of their own. The UAE has a robust programme and has ambitious plans for a mission to Mars by 2021. Bangladesh is keen to join this group with some assistance from the Indian Space Research Organisation, which also plans to manufacture a satellite which could be used by all South Asian nations.
Nasa’s space shuttle missions cost $450 million per trip – and there have been 130 of them. A shuttle costs $1.7 billion to build and put out there. Nations have shelled out an estimated $142 billion so far for the International Space Station, which have not gone down well with critics.
Compare this to MOM which does not go over the head. A modest mission which will provide images and spectroscopic observations of the Martian surface, it is also expected to conduct dynamics and composition studies of the atmosphere. Scientists are most excited that the mission will undertake a study of Methane emissions near the planet.
That, however, will be of little interest to the auto-rickshaw driver who wants a less bumpier ride on the road, or the farmer who tills the field. Modern odysseys for them are about social upliftment through the wonders of technology from above. They have come to believe that space is now within their realm of influence and can change their lives for the better.
It can be economical too as the latest probe has shown, which is pricelesss in this age of austerity. MOM’s the word for a universal space mascot. Who said Mars isn’t for the masses?
(Allan Jacob is the chief reporter at Khaleej Times)
