India’s Mars mission
While Suparco is still occupied with weather patterns and mapping floods, an Indian satellite has entered Mars’...
On September 24, an Indian satellite, successfully entered Mars’ orbit. It is, and ought to be, lauded as a spectacular achievement, one for which the Indian Space Research Organisation deserves full credit. After a crippling global recession and American disinterest in space programmes, Mars, a planet that stimulated our collective imagination for so long, seemed to no longer hold our interest. The Indian mission has reinvigorated that interest.
No longer is space the exclusive domain of rich countries. India should be proud of its institutions, its scientists and its government (the mission began under the previous Congress-led coalition) that made this endevour possible. It is an oft-heard complaint that money that was spent on the mission, $74 million, could have been spent elsewhere. The response to that charge bears repeating: it is miraculous that only $75 million was spent on this programme, making it the cheapest so far.
Second, of course the money could have been spent on any other over-burdened sector in a country where 300 million people still live below the poverty line, but there are certain things that cannot be quantified that easily — self-esteem and national pride, for example. The collective pride over this achievement transcends all those barriers — class, religion, caste, language — that have hampered India’s progress since its inception. Almost a billion and a half people can declare themselves to be amongst the newest members of a very short list of countries with a viable space programmes. Of course this gives Pakistan plenty of soul searching to do. Our own nascent space agency, Suparco, still occupies itself with weather patterns and tracking natural disasters, which should be overseen by a separate body. Given the litany of Pakistan’s problems, the country hardly looks at the world outside of itself — other worlds, in this case. These problems keep Pakistanis in a constant state of crisis management, always worrying about the immediate rather than the future. This seems unlikely to change soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2014.
No longer is space the exclusive domain of rich countries. India should be proud of its institutions, its scientists and its government (the mission began under the previous Congress-led coalition) that made this endevour possible. It is an oft-heard complaint that money that was spent on the mission, $74 million, could have been spent elsewhere. The response to that charge bears repeating: it is miraculous that only $75 million was spent on this programme, making it the cheapest so far.
Second, of course the money could have been spent on any other over-burdened sector in a country where 300 million people still live below the poverty line, but there are certain things that cannot be quantified that easily — self-esteem and national pride, for example. The collective pride over this achievement transcends all those barriers — class, religion, caste, language — that have hampered India’s progress since its inception. Almost a billion and a half people can declare themselves to be amongst the newest members of a very short list of countries with a viable space programmes. Of course this gives Pakistan plenty of soul searching to do. Our own nascent space agency, Suparco, still occupies itself with weather patterns and tracking natural disasters, which should be overseen by a separate body. Given the litany of Pakistan’s problems, the country hardly looks at the world outside of itself — other worlds, in this case. These problems keep Pakistanis in a constant state of crisis management, always worrying about the immediate rather than the future. This seems unlikely to change soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 26th, 2014.