Disclaimer: This article will not make you a rocket scientist. Nor will it unveil the secrets of the universe. Or give you a concise history of the space program. Space, in the words of Douglas Adams, is ‘vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big’. And so is the history of the human space program.

We know you heard. They just bombed the moon for water. And found another giant ring around Saturn. And you’re wondering…who are ‘they’? And why should you care?

Every adult, at some point during his/her childhood, has wished to be an astronaut. (It is a fact - check statistics.com* . Those who’ve never made such a wish are probably liars). Ever since Galileo got tired of spying on his neighbors in 1609 through his telescope and decided to turn the lens to the heavens instead, we became aware of other earth-like planets and hills and craters on our very own moon. And the human understanding of space was changed forever. Four hundred years later, the wonders of space continue to inspire and excite generations, geeks, and of course, governments.

The first thing you should learn is that governments love acronyms. Especially if they have anything to do with space. The two important acronyms you must learn right away in order to make any sense of what this article is about, are:

i) NASA

and

ii) ISRO

It all started in 1957, with the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, being launched into space by the Soviet Union. The United States, threatened by this demonstration of another country’s power and technology, transformed its federal agency NACA – the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, into NASA, its national space agency. NASA stood for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (and not ‘North America South America’ as both authors intuitively thought when they were children). The agency marked the beginning of a ‘space race’ between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Losing that first round to the Soviets caused the United States to pour a lot of money into the space program. Since then, NASA has pioneered space exploration, sending intelligent machinery on grand tours of the solar system[1], landing on asteroids[2] and chasing comets[3], making it possible for humans in white bubble suits to float in zero gravity 200 kilometers over the earth’s surface[4], and play golf on the moon. Although it started as a political competition to prove the nation’s superiority in space, NASA soon became synonymous with the most fantastic kind of exploration humans had ever been involved in. Starting with Project Mercury in 1958 which tried to determine if humans could survive in space, and moving on to the Apollo missions which landed man on the moon, NASA has more than proved that neither does the earth rest on the back of a giant turtle, nor is there a hare in the moon.

Unmanned spacecraft have explored places where humans cannot hope to get within a thousand miles of without undergoing spontaneous evaporation or combustion. We know what rings around Saturn look like, thanks to the Cassini spacecraft which is still orbiting it. We know the surface of Mars intimately now, because of the rovers which NASA engineers control. Imagine sitting in the driver’s seat in Los Angeles and driving your car which is parked in New York 4000 km away. Now increase the distance to 55 million km, and you know that driving those rovers is no joke. Four great telescopes are constantly increasing scientists’ undertanding of the universe and the beginnings of life on earth. Over the past few decades, most of the technology developed by NASA has been commercialized and has been used in the fields of medicine, transporation, industry, and the environment. Memory foam, used to improve seat cushioning and crash protection in airlines, also used in pillows and mattresses, was one such spinoff. The water filtration system was originally designed for the international space station.

NASA is now spread out over more than a dozen locations around the United States, with each center claiming its own importance in a crucial phase of mission planning and execution. The Johnson space center in Houston, Texas is the center for mission control and astronaut training. The Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California manages robotic missions to explore all the planets in the solar system and other celestial bodies.

The Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO, was established in its modern form in 1969 - despite doubts from several skeptics regarding the merits of such an endeavor for a new born nation struggling to feed its population (probably because they doubted the culinary competence of aliens). There are, of course, several other space agencies from around the world, all with acronym names like JAXA, ESA, CNSA etc. - but let us leave those for a later lesson. We know full well the consequences of exposing people to too many acronyms - and we try to keep bloodshed to a minimum during the off-Halloween season.

Indian rocketry was born thanks to the technocrat, Prime Minister Nehru, in his quest to align India’s ’stars’ in the right place. However, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was the founding father of the Indian space program, and is considered a scientific visionary by many, as well as a national hero. After the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957, he recognized the potent power of satellites and what it they can do for India. And both the visionaries were not wrong. ISRO is now headquartered in Bangalore, and has 15 research and administrative centers scattered over the length and breadth of the country. Its motto, keeping with the true generous spirit of India, says “Space technology in the service of Human kind”. [5]

During its modest four decade old program, ISRO has some stellar achievements to brag about. Created in a country of great need, ISRO has long prioritized the practical uses of space science over the prestige it so often brings. ISRO has gone to space not only to gaze at the stars, but also to turn to look back at our small blue planet, as its motto claims. Though it operates on about one-twentieth of NASA’s annual budget, on a day-to-day basis ISRO justifies itself by making its advances accessible to its citizens as well. While every other nation made the final frontier a means of advancing military capabilities, India saw its space technology as a means to help the developing world. ISRO holds one-third of the global market for remote sensing, and is almost achieving self sufficiency in indigenous launching. In 2008, the organisation established a new world record by launching 10 satellites simultaneously, shattering the previously held Russian record of eight. ISRO claims to be a profit-making venture, with each rupee spent earning two rupees in revenue. ISRO is also slowly gaining a commercial presence in space. “We can launch a remote-sensing satellite for half the price as anyone else,” claims Shridhara Murhi, executive director of Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO.[6]

Of course, India’s space adventure has had its share of failures, waste and dependance. Critics berated them by proclaiming their projects overambitious[7] and people joked about their failed rocket missions making the life of Indian fishermen vulnerable[8]. Every venture by the Indian Space Research Organization has attracted criticism from every conceivable quarter. Even INSAT-IA, which made national TV possible for all of us, was criticized for pandering to the tastes of the rich few! But a series of stunning successes are increasing every year. If villages commune over a cricket match, or our grandparents gossip about the megaserial running on TV over the cellphone back in India, this rarely remembered agency has a lot to be thanked for. Today, it is a vast organism spread all over India.They are even trying to beat Google Earth by developing a web-based satellite mapping tool named Bhuvan (‘Earth’ in Sanskrit).

ISRO, like NASA, boasts over a dozen locations panning from Chandigarh (Union Territory of India) to Thiruvananthapuram (extreme South India) ranging from research and test facilities to its commercial wing with its head quarters in Antariksh Bhavan (literal Hindi translation of ‘House of Space’) in Bangalore.

So how do two space agencies on the opposite sides of the planet, with vastly different resources, budgets and goals compare? Here’s a glimpse into that universe.

The Haves and the Have Nots

NASA vs. ISRO (table 1)

Back to the Future

The universe is expanding, and so is NASA’s ambition. Several exciting missions are lined up for the next few years. Juno, a spacecraft that will launch in 2011, will study the origin and evolution of the giant planet Jupiter. Dawn, launched in 2007, will be encountering two of the largest asteroids between Mars and Jupiter in the coming years. The spacecraft New Horizons is already on its way to Pluto, which it will reach in 2015. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers continue to dream up missions to study the origin of the universe and find life on foreign planets. The Mars Science Laboratory, to be launched in 2011, is a giant rover carrying ten different instruments which will determine if Mars was ever ‘alive’.

With increasing budget cuts and changing administrations, NASA’s future is not the stuff of fairy tales or science fiction. The space shuttles, which have been ferrying humans to the International Space Station for over 20 years, have an uncertain future ahead, and will probably be retired before the end of the decade. With the proposed cancellation of the Constellation Program (which was supposed to take humans from Earth to the Moon and then to Mars), the commercial sector may be the only means for the United States to continue its human spaceflight effort.

ISRO’s next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 ($86.6 million) in collaboration with Russia is set to be launched in 2013.Unravelling the mysteries of moon has given ISRO the confidence to reach out to center star-ubiquitous yet enigmatic Sun- Aditya, the future solar mission is reportedly the world’s first space based solar mission planned to study the corona, the sun’s outer layer. Mars is the next target with a mission planned around 2019.And finally, every space program’s dream mission of putting a human in space is on the go and could be expected before 2015.And If realized in the stated time-frame, India will become only the fourth nation, after the USSR, USA and China, to successfully carry out manned missions indigenously.

Space cooperation is the new buzzword. The silent space surrounding the moon is already bustling with activity, thanks to the shortlived Chandrayan 1 and its phenomenal discovery of the holy grail of lunar missions: water on the moon. And these two legendary agencies are exploring ways to expand their space ties now. The two countries have agreed to work together in a number of areas, from cooperation in the war on terror to the transfer of civilian nuclear power technology to India.Who knew all’s fair in space war?

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that the world’s space agencies decided not to heed Douglas Adams’ excellent warning.

As long as the human race exists, the vast sky with all its mysteries will fascinate us. And every child will dream of becoming an astronaut (secretly, adults too) Everyone wants a share of outer space. Believe a rocket scientist when you hear that space is truly amazing. Robotic giants to Jupiter and Saturn have studied the volcanic rages of Io and the water cycles on Enceledus. Humans have learned to live in space for months at a time, eating freeze dried food and using a space toilet. Adams was right – space has already become more bizarre and inexplicable. But perhaps it is worth it.

* Hah - did you really? Gotcha! (beware of spaced-out humor!)
Tags: ISRO, NASA, space program

[2] NEAR: The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft was launched in 1996, and studied the near earth asteroid Eros.

[3] Stardust: This spacecraft, launched in 1999, collected a sample from the Wild 2 comet and returned it back to Earth.

[4] International Space Station (ISS) – International research facility being constructed in space (200 km above the Earth’s surface). Primary partners include the United States and Russia.

[5] http://www.isro.org/

[6] ISRO Press Release December 21, 2004

[7] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7656396.stm

[8] http://blog.nikhil.co.in/2008/11/space-isro-launch-vehicles-chandrayaan.html

References:

Interview with former VSSC scientist P. V. Manoranjan Rao

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1327/1

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200903160952.htm

http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article24715.ece

http://www.isro.org/publications/pdf/Chandra_book.pdf

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

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