Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 yesterday, their first mission to Moon. This is the first step in a series of goals that will eventually lead to India sending manned spacecrafts to moon by 2015 or so. According to ISRO, the primary objectives of Chandrayaan-1 mission are:
- To place an unmanned spacecraft in an orbit around the moon
- To conduct mineralogical chemical mapping of the lunar surface
- To upgrade the technological base in the country
As an Indian, it makes me extremely proud that India has pulled this off – something only a very few countries managed to do so far. And to do this at an extremely low cost (relatively speaking, of course) – for appr. 80 million USD – is phenomenal.
This is a great technological achievement all right, but not everybody is happy, it seems. There are people who are arguing that India is wasting money on such things when a majority of its population lives in poverty. I personally find that argument funny. India’s problems are far more deep-rooted and far more systematic to be solved by a mere 80 million dollars. To use that as an excuse to prevent scientific research is a disservice to the country – especially when that research has great potential (economic or otherwise) to bring in future benefits.
ISRO has a long and successful history of turning their scientific research into greater benefit for the country. Think of their satellites that provide weather forecasts, think of their satellites that provide television programming to homes, think of the exciting prospect of some of today’s kids ending up as future scientists. If we had stopped ISRO from spending money on all this research in the past 2,3 decades, Indian population wouldn’t have had all these goodies. And let’s not forget the increased respect India now commands on the international stage because of Chandrayaan-1 success.
I am sure people are more concerned about making it through their day-to-day lives. Someone selling vegetables on the streets obviously won’t be interested in sending a rocket to moon and its benefits. But that should not mean we should stop supporting our science and research.
Scientific research is not something that always produces immediate and tangible benefits. We need to have a long term perspective – with an eye on the track record of the organization in charge of that research. And as far track record is concerned, ISRO had delivered most of the times!
