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Space dreams all moonshine: The Times of India
New Delhi, Aug 18: Should India spend $ 500 million in sending a mission to the moon?
New Delhi, Aug 18: Should India spend $ 500 million in sending a mission to the moon?
Looking back, it is clear that its exploration was a byproduct of the Cold War. In the race to get ahead, the erstwhile Soviet Union and the US sent satellites to orbit the moon, landed robots to collect moon rock and finally, in 1969, the US landed a man on the moon. But all significant activity ended by 1980.
So why do the Indians want to go a quarter of a century later? The scientific data and even some half tonne or so of rocks collected by the US and Russia is for the asking. The thrust of US activity is towards using space for missile defence, the international space station and the exploration of deep space beginning with planets like Mars.
Enthusiasts say that an Indian moon mission will give a fillip to Indian science. But reinventing the wheel has never given an impetus to anything.
As for tasks, there is no dearth of them — universal literacy and immunisation, electricity and safe drinking water for all and so on.
Some say that since the Chinese are doing it, India must follow. The Chinese space programme is way ahead of India's but while they do have plans to explore the moon, their main aim right now is to send a man into space. In fact, if things go according to plan, the first Chinese taikonaut, (Taikong = space) will orbit the earth later this year on the "Shenzhou V" vehicle which was developed with the help of the Russians. The Chinese have been working on this for the past decade, though serious work began in 1980. Four Shenzhou vehicles have been sent into orbit with monkeys, rabbits and snails to conduct tests related to life-support systems. According to the China Daily, the country has already spent some $ 2.3 billion on the manned flight programme.
The key difference is that while Chinese space effort is an off-shoot of a military programme, the Indians remain coy to acknowledge that military needs are an important driver of space programmes everywhere in the world. Unlike the somewhat vague Indian aims of conducting scientific experiments, some perhaps already done by others, the Chinese aim at becoming a world class space power.
They have been moving in the direction of manned flight since the 1960s, under the guidance of one of the great geniuses of rocket science, Qian Xuesen.
But ever pragmatic, they have adjusted priorities to the needs of the time. Though astronaut training began in the 1980s, it is only now that they feel they have the money and the infrastructure to move into manned flight.
The next phase would see the Chinese developing a manned space station and reusable space planes, perhaps on Qian's 1970s design. The US aims at capturing the high ground of space, but the Chinese have given notice that they will not be too far behind.
Looking back, it is clear that its exploration was a byproduct of the Cold War. In the race to get ahead, the erstwhile Soviet Union and the US sent satellites to orbit the moon, landed robots to collect moon rock and finally, in 1969, the US landed a man on the moon. But all significant activity ended by 1980.
So why do the Indians want to go a quarter of a century later? The scientific data and even some half tonne or so of rocks collected by the US and Russia is for the asking. The thrust of US activity is towards using space for missile defence, the international space station and the exploration of deep space beginning with planets like Mars.
Enthusiasts say that an Indian moon mission will give a fillip to Indian science. But reinventing the wheel has never given an impetus to anything.
As for tasks, there is no dearth of them — universal literacy and immunisation, electricity and safe drinking water for all and so on.
Some say that since the Chinese are doing it, India must follow. The Chinese space programme is way ahead of India's but while they do have plans to explore the moon, their main aim right now is to send a man into space. In fact, if things go according to plan, the first Chinese taikonaut, (Taikong = space) will orbit the earth later this year on the "Shenzhou V" vehicle which was developed with the help of the Russians. The Chinese have been working on this for the past decade, though serious work began in 1980. Four Shenzhou vehicles have been sent into orbit with monkeys, rabbits and snails to conduct tests related to life-support systems. According to the China Daily, the country has already spent some $ 2.3 billion on the manned flight programme.
The key difference is that while Chinese space effort is an off-shoot of a military programme, the Indians remain coy to acknowledge that military needs are an important driver of space programmes everywhere in the world. Unlike the somewhat vague Indian aims of conducting scientific experiments, some perhaps already done by others, the Chinese aim at becoming a world class space power.
They have been moving in the direction of manned flight since the 1960s, under the guidance of one of the great geniuses of rocket science, Qian Xuesen.
But ever pragmatic, they have adjusted priorities to the needs of the time. Though astronaut training began in the 1980s, it is only now that they feel they have the money and the infrastructure to move into manned flight.
The next phase would see the Chinese developing a manned space station and reusable space planes, perhaps on Qian's 1970s design. The US aims at capturing the high ground of space, but the Chinese have given notice that they will not be too far behind.