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India's Mars Mission: Multidimensional View

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India's Mars Mission: Multidimensional View ISAS Working Paper No. 200 – 15 January 2015 Institute of South Asian Studies National University of Singapore 29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace #08-06 (Block B) Singapore 119620 Tel: (65) 6516 4239 Fax: (65) 6776 7505 www.isas.nus.edu.sg http://southasiandiaspora.org India’s Mars Mission: Multidimensional View 1 Ajey Lele Over the years, Mars has been the centre of attraction for science fiction writers, Hollywood movie makers, astrologers, astronomers and the scientific community. For scientists and technologists, Mars continues to be an enigma. This is essentially because even tough humans have dreamt for long about human colonisation of Mars. Still, in reality humans are nowhere near to realising such a dream. During the last five decades, more than fifty percent of human efforts to send an unmanned spacecraft to hover in the vicinity of Mars or to land on the Martian surface have failed. Interestingly, during September 2014 a developing state like India succeeded in placing its own satellite in the Martian orbit and that too in its first attempt when no other state was able to achieve such distinction in all these years. India’s success has won significant international acclaim and has significantly raised expectations about its overall space programme. This paper attempts to understand the rationale behind India’s Mars agenda and its implications and discusses its progress towards success. From the beginning, developments in space science and technology have witnessed the dominance of major powers. Today, when India’s strategic vision for outer space is being appreciated globally, a query is raised on these lines: ‘How a state like India, operating in a 1 Dr Ajey Lele is Research Fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi (India). He can be contacted at [email protected]. Opinions expressed in this paper, based on research by the author, do not necessarily reflect the views of ISAS. The author thanks Dr K Radhakrishnan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation until recently, and other scientists associated with India’s Mars Mission for useful discussions. complex regional environment and fighting various internal socioeconomic-development- related challenges, was able to afford an unwavering politico-economic commitment towards sustaining its space agenda for more than four decades?’ There is also curiosity to know why India wants to reach Mars. There is also an interest to know about the involvement of foreign powers behind India’s overall success in the space sector. This paper has four major sections. The first section puts in context India’s Mars agenda in the backdrop of its overall investments in the space arena. The second section describes the Mars mission in totality. The third section debates the budgetary aspects, and the last section dwells on the politico- economic advantages of this mission. A Fragment of India’s Space Agenda Indian space programme had a very humble beginning during the early 1960s. India launched its first satellite in 1975 with assistance from the erstwhile USSR. India achieved the status of space-faring nation2 by 1980, and by the end of 2014 has launched around 75 satellites. India’s vision for a space programme was articulated by Vikram Sarabhai during late 1960s. He had said that India’s space programme would be a civilian programme with focus on application of space technology as a tool for socioeconomic development of the country.3 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the agency responsible for evolving and implementing India’s overall space agenda, was established on 15 August 1969. Appreciating the importance of the space domain, it was placed under direct supervision of the prime minister. An exclusive Department of Space (DOS) and the Space Commission were set up in 1972. Satish Dhawan as Chairman of ISRO (1972-1984) during its formative years was instrumental in developing scientific temperament, professionalism and work culture in the organisation. Indian investments in satellite technologies have mostly been in the field of meteorology, remote sensing and communications. Presently, India’s Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite network with eleven operational satellites is the largest civilian remote sensing satellite constellation in the world. The data inputs from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, drought and flood forecasting, management of water and ocean resources, urban development, mineral prospecting, forestry, and disaster 2 A nation with an indigenous capability to design, develop and launch artificial satellites as well capabilities to monitor and control their activities with appropriate ground infrastructure. 3 Sankar U, The Economics of India’s Space Programme, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp.1-2. 2 management.4 India is also developing its own navigational network called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). This seven-satellite system is expected to be fully operational by 2015-16 and would provide a better than 20 m position accuracy. For many years, the main pivot for Indian space programme has been its most successful satellite launching system called Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which could launch satellites weighing less than two tonnes in polar orbit, and approximately one-tonne-satellite into the geosynchronous transfer orbit. Till October 2014, there had been 27 successive and successful flights of PSLV; and this system has also been used commercially to launch satellites for the client states. However, the basic limitation of Indian space programme is the lack of ability to put heavier payloads (say four tonnes and more) into the geostationary orbits. Due to this, India has to rely on hiring launching services for heavy satellites, say from agencies like the French company called Arianespace. For all these years, ISRO has ensured that the lack of heavy-lift launcher would not stall the growth of the space programme; where possible ISRO has devised innovative approaches to overcome the lack of indigenous heavy-lift capabilities. Since 2005, ISRO appears to have started following a two-pronged strategy: concentrating on developing a heavy-lift launch vehicle (GSLV-Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle) and simultaneously addressing new areas in space research. During November 2006, Indian space scientists and technologists held a brainstorming session where ideas like the Moon- and Mars-missions and human space missions were discussed. This session was held on the recommendation of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 5 Subsequently, during October 2008 India launched its first mission to the Moon called Chandrayaan-1 satellite—to revolve around the Moon with 11 scientific instruments on board. This mission marked a major success, with Indian scientists along with their US counterparts discovering the presence of water on the Moon. ISRO realised that the infrastructure created for the Moon mission could also be used/modified for undertaking other similar Deep-space missions.6 After the successful completion of the first mission to the Moon, ISRO’s interest in Mars should be seen as a continuation of its Deep- 4 www.isro.org/satellites/earthobservationsatellites.aspx. 5 K. S. Jayaraman, “India’s Space Agency Proposes Manned Spaceflight Program”, Nov 10, 2006, www.space.com/3098-indias-space-agency-proposes-manned-spaceflight-program.html, accessed on 28 October 2014. 6 There is no structured definition of deep space. However it, at times, gets discussed as a region outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Also, some view this as a region covering the distance of one million-two million km from the Earth's surface. 3 space agenda. A brief glance at various missions undertaken by ISRO since 2010 indicates that they have many programmes under simultaneous development. Various activities have taken place during the last four to five years in the development and launch of meteorological, remote sensing and communications satellites. Indigenously-developed cryogenic engine was successfully tested during this period. Also, India’s satellite navigational system is in the making. A few commercial missions were undertaken and India’s first military satellite GSAT-7 was developed and launched during the same time. The Mission to Mars is one element of this comprehensive space agenda. Mars Orbital Mission India’s Mission to Mars was launched on 5 November 2013. The official announcement in regard to India’s plans to launch this mission was made by Manmohan Singh during his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2012. Officially, the Indian mission, called the Mars Orbital Mission (MOM). 7 The spacecraft successfully entered the Martian orbit on 24 September 2014 after 298 days of travel. The correct entry into the Martian orbit has been a challenge for various states that have reached Mars or have attempted to reach Mars. 8 Presently, India is the only state that has succeeded in reaching the Martian orbit in the first attempt. This is India’s first interplanetary mission. It needs to be highlighted that the expanse of this mission is rather limited in comparison with the missions executed by the US or the European Space Agency (ESA). India’s mission is an indigenous effort and has been designed with a limited mandate. The basic limitation for ISRO while designing this mission arose from the non-availability of a heavy-lift launch vehicle. Presently, India’s launching capability is restricted because the GSLV is not yet fully operational. Naturally, to undertake a mission to Mars, India was compelled to design a mission with a very limited payload, because using the PSLV was the only option. The limitation was that the PSLV could place a satellite only in geocentric and low-Earth orbit. It may be noted that during same period, NASA had launched its mission to Mars called MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission) and this satellite had left the Earth’s atmosphere immediately after the launch, so MOM had to 7 It may be noted that informally this mission is popularly mentioned by the name Mangalyaan which in ancient Indian language called Sanskrit means a craft to Mars.
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