Mangalyaan

I've been wanting to write this piece on Mangalyaan for quite some time. After long bouts of laziness and procrastination, I've finally managed to make a decent fist of it, hopefully.

When the Mangalyaan was launched, I came across many reactions (of course, mainly on facebook), ranging from extreme happiness and pride, to outright disgust at the amount of money being "wasted" on useless missions. This post is about my views on this - the views which have been helped by rigorous discussions with my omniscient friend Vinit.

Mission Mangalyaan

Mangalyaan, ISRO's ambitious space mission to Mars was launched on November 5, 2013. The objective of this mission is to send a satellite (the Mars Orbiter) to orbit Mars which shall "explore Mars' surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere", especially the presence of methane in Martian atmosphere. It is believed that methane is predominantly produced by living objects, and hence the presence of methane in Martian atmosphere would lead us to believe that there is a high probability of the presence of living organisms (and also oil?) in the area where methane is found.

The Mangalyaan is not yet a qualified success, and only the "easier" part, the part which ISRO has enough experience in, has been successfully carried out. The results of the "difficult" part where the Mars Orbiter was given a thrust on December 1 2013 to make it escape earth's gravitational influence and start towards Mars' orbit are still awaited. It is expected to reach Mars' orbit during September 2014, when Mars shall be nearest to earth. It is then expected to come under Mars' gravitational influence and start orbiting around it.

There are many challenges surrounding this. First of all, the thrusts given to the orbiter has to be optimum, neither too less where in it would miss its rendezvous with Mars, nor too high where in it would overshoot and escape Mars' gravitational influence and go away from it. Secondly, the communications channel with the Mars Orbiter should not get lost as it happened, sadly, during Chandrayaan-1. In this mission, ISRO is venturing into deep space communications, navigation and control for the first time. It is going over its comfort level of launching satellites which remain in earth's orbit, or even for that matter, the moon whose average distance from earth is around 3,84,400 km. The distance between Mars and earth when they are closest to each other is 5,46,00,000 km, and at the farthest point, they are 40,10,00,000 km apart. This poses a huge challenge for maintaining contact and keeping the communications channel open between ISRO's earth based control station and the Mars Orbiter.

Why Mangalyaan?

Now that we are done with the nitty gritties of the Mangalyaan, let us focus on the meat of this post - why Mangalyaan?

Many argue that India should focus on alleviation of poverty, providing good sanitation and healthcare etc. than spend money on "sci-fi" projects like Mangalyaan. This argument appears to be logical and true at first glance. But, is it really that simple?

This is a beautifully written article debasing the prejudices against Mangalyaan. The author comes out with some excellent arguments. The main points are

• Inspires children to take up a career in science, technology and research.
• Can act as an organization which provides cheap launch capabilities for countries which want to launch satellites or anything else into space. 
• India will benefit from the profits generated by charging fees to countries for this launch service provided.
• Being a major player in space industry shall also provide more job opportunities for India's engineers.

All this talk of "testing our advancement in space technology" and "helping to contribute to human knowledge" is definitely inspiring and looks well-intentioned. But is this the main reason?

Colonization

We are all aware of the history of colonization by European nations after the industrial revolution. The main reasons cited for colonization is

• Acquiring raw materials and minerals present in the colonized countries.
• Making the colonized countries the new markets for the excessive goods produced by industries. 

Although political colonization has more or less come to an end, "economic colonization" is still in vogue. The erstwhile colonized countries have less industrial infrastructure, and less technological knowledge to kick start economic development on a large scale similar to the developed countries, i.e. erstwhile colonial powers. But they are a rich source of natural resources. Thus they end up inviting multinational companies from developed countries to set up industries in their land which make use of their natural resources and end up selling the finished products to the people of the same country at higher profits.

Without being further distracted by the features and nuances of neo-colonization, let me tell you why "colonization" is being discussed in a Mangalyaan article. 

When we look at the reasons for colonization, their relevance today and the extremely globalized world that we live in, we can easily say that there is enough market in the world today for selling manufactured goods. But there is a realistic concern for the lack of natural resources on the planet. 

So, where does one turn to for natural resources? 

The obvious answer - the untouched pristine lands of Antarctica and the shallow continental shelf of Arctic ocean. 

Quest For Natural Resources

Antarctica has been made untouchable for now, thanks to the farsightedness (or stupidity - depending on which side you're on) of the earlier world leaders. The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) - the treaty system and framework under which all future treaties and pacts regarding Antarctica would take place - clearly states that the continent shall not be a military battlefield and the continent shall be used only for scientific and ecological studies. Though many centres have been set up for "scientific and ecological studies", one can safely assume that there is more to it than what meets the eye. They could be just bases with proper infrastructure being set up to get a foothold in Antarctica, so that if/when the race for natural resource extraction begins, one already has a headstart there. Indian Government became a signatory of ATS under Indira Gandhi in 1983 and set up a base in Antarctica, the "Dakshina Gangotri" in 1984. Since then, Dakshina Gangotri has been abandoned, and two more bases - Maitri and Bharati have been built.

Given the (lack of) funds and scientific technology that India had during the 1980's, one can only be suspicious of the intentions of India when it became a signatory to the ATS, particularly when, at the same period when India became a signatory, the issue of mining minerals in Antarctica was gaining momentum through the negotiations for CRAMRA (Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities). Along with India, around 20 other countries also became signatories at the same time, sensing the possible profits to be had. Alas, CRAMRA failed due to some stringent directives laid down by the founders of ATS. Under ATS, for any new activity to be allowed in Antarctica, all the ATS signatories have to approve it, and CRAMRA failed because Australia and France refused to approve it, coming under pressure from environmentalists. Hence, till date, mineral resource extraction in Antarctica is still forbidden under international laws.

Having burned their fingers in Antarctica, the world powers realised that atleast in the Arctic region, this should not be repeated. Hence, the premise for the Arctic Council was not based on the ideal of peace and non-disturbance of Arctic ecology, but to facilitate the claimant countries to crystallise their territorial claims in that region. So that in future,these same countries could start mineral extraction from the Arctic sea bed which is a rich source of minerals, especially oil, without much hassle. In today's world, where wars have already started for control of mineral resources (especially oil), this was but a natural course. Recently, India became an observer state in the Arctic council, obviously with an eye on exploiting the rich mineral resources that Arctic region has. In this article, Shyam Saran, a former chairman of National Security Advisory Board, makes no bones about the real interests of the powers that be in controlling the Arctic territory, and the interests of the observer states too. One feels it is just a matter of time before mineral extraction begins in a war footing in the Arctic region by these claimant powers, followed by a similar gold rush in Antarctica as well.

What after/apart from Arctic and Antarctica?

Human activities in the polar region is something the environmentalists are very much against. And not without good reason. The environmental and climatic backlash that could happen if the ice caps of Arctic ocean and Antarctica are tampered with have not been understood fully by mankind. If the mineral extraction activities in these regions result in some major calamities, one can assume that such activities would be quickly abandoned and not thought about again. 

But what about the burgeoning demand for energy and minerals by the ever increasing populace of this world? How would it be met? Step in, moon and Mars. And other planets and their moons too. Inter planetary mining would be much less controversial, as environmental concerns there would be of little consequence to earthlings. When the inevitable reduction in costs for space travel and transport happens in future, who would be getting a headstart in this race for colonization of other planets? Of course, the traditional space powers who led the world in developing space technology. And if Mangalyaan becomes a success, India would rightly be considered among the foremost leaders in space technology. Also, the countries who were forefront in space technology and helped in advancing it would have a "moral right", and hence, a precedence over other countries also eyeing these extra terrestrial resources. 

India missed boarding the Industrial Revolution train and the subsequent scientific and technological advancements. Colonization of India also led to it being pushed further behind in this race. India is facing the consequences today - it is still a developing country. But the leaders of post-independence India have rightly encouraged the space program, so that when the next important train - the inter-spatial technological revolution - comes in, we not only board it, but be one of the engines driving it.