Late on the evening of Sept. 23, India’s Managalyaan, a Mars Orbiter spacecraft, reached Mars safely. The country enjoys the status of being the only nation to have succeeded in its first attempt. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, the spacecraft now safely orbits Mars every 72 hours 51 minutes and 51 seconds. This is a very proud moment for a country that got its independence in 1947.
ISRO became the fourth agency in the world to succeed in a Mars mission, joining the likes of NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency. The cost of the entire mission stood at $74 million which is less than the production cost of the film “Gravity.”
Paritosh Muley, a presidential scholar at Mississippi State University, wants to work for the ISRO after graduation. He says he dreams the agency will begin sending manned missions to the Moon and Mars. He tells me the mission will be very difficult, but not impossible.
With this recent advancement in space, India continues to prove its legitimacy as a contender for the regional hegemon title. In 2011, China sent similar Mars mission Yinghuo 1, which crashed into the Pacific after it failed to clear Earth’s orbit.
For a country with a deep obsession with Western education, I was also surprised to know that every scientist that was part of this mission was educated in an Indian university.
NASA congratulated ISRO on the achievement in a tweet which said, “We congratulate @ISRO for its Mars arrival! @MarsOrbiter joins the missions studying the Red Planet,” and Curiosity Rover’s official handle said, “Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to @ISRO and India’s first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit.”
The big question of a new space race remains; are countries like India and China, which are on the verge of becoming influential powers on the world stage, falling into this phenomenon?
Western columnists call it the Asian Space Race; nothing is out in the open no one is confrontational, but the truth will probably never be accepted. Somewhere deep down both countries have this unspoken rivalry in the race to space, and currently India is a few strides ahead.
ISRO’s Deputy Director M. Pitchaimani told The Washington Post, “Many countries have failed in their first attempt. India got success the first time itself, but this has come after intense study of others’ failures and the reasons for failure,and building our satellite accordingly.”
When India decides to send a multi-million dollar spacecraft, it faces criticism a U.S. spacecraft never will. Cynics quickly begin questioning why we are channelizing funds when there are so many that go hungry every day. Is this good use of public money? The government is often worried to back such a mission because you never know if there will be a backlash. India’s tagline of sending the cheapest spacecraft ever worked well this time.
The newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks to many like someone who will bulldoze India’s agenda on the world stage. Recently he started the “Make in India” campaign, which promotes India as a global manufacturing hub.
The U.S. relationship with India has grown like never before the civil nuclear deal struck by President Bush and Prime Minister Singh in 2006 has only moved things forward. President Obama and Prime Minister Modi will meet Tuesday for bilateral talks. Obama will try and garner support from Modi against ISIS; in his speech at the UN general assembly last week, Modi hinted that he supports the United States’ decision against terrorism.
On a global stage, this is an interesting time. India lands the cheapest spacecraft on Mars, and in the following week President Obama holds bilateral talks with the Indian Prime Minister Modi, who was estranged by the U.S. What comes out of the meeting and materializes is something only time will tell.
In the end, I believe there is no better time to be a proud Indian than now. Jai Hind.
