India Set to Launch Mars Mission

Updated Nov. 3, 2013 11:20 p.m. ET

India is preparing to launch a spacecraft to Mars, a mission that if successful would propel it ahead of space rivals China and Japan. Ram Jakhu, a professor at Canada’s McGill University, tells the WSJ’s Deborah Kan how such programs can boost the economy and fight poverty.

NEW DELHI—On Tuesday, India’s space agency will launch a spacecraft designed to boldly go where no Asian nation has gone before: Mars.

Soldiers stood guard in Sriharikota last week next to the launch vehicle to be used Tuesday when India aims to send its first spacecraft to Mars. Associated Press

The mission, if successful, would be a technological leap that would propel India ahead of space rivals China and Japan in the field of interplanetary exploration.
It will take more than 10 months for India’s Mars satellite, equipped with instruments that can examine the surface of the Red Planet from above, to reach Martian orbit and begin beaming information back to Earth.
“This is a major turning point in our space program–towards exploration,” said Koppillil Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, the country’s civilian space agency. It will bring “technological advantage for the country.”
Decades after the U.S. and Soviet Union battled for supremacy in space during the Cold War, Asian powers have embarked on their own space race—a contest with political, military and technical ramifications here on Earth.
In recent years, Japan, China and India—in cooperation with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration—have put satellites into lunar orbit. China has also put astronauts into Earth orbit and conducted spacewalks.
India spends 68 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) a year on its space program and has 20 satellites in orbit for communication and remote sensing.
Critics argue that a country where more than 350 million people live on less than $1.25 a day and where a third of the population lacks access to electricity should be focused more on terrestrial problems.
“The bread or gun argument” is real for India, said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a space-security expert at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi think tank. “But India doesn’t live in a benign neighborhood.”
Ms. Rajagopalan said that while India is focused on peaceful use of outer space, “this is the background against which the Mars mission is taking place. There is a sort of arms race,” especially since China in 2007 successfully tested an antisatellite missile.
In August, India launched its first dedicated military satellite for naval intelligence gathering, amid mounting concerns about the Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean.
Boosters also point to the civilian benefits of the space program, such as improved meteorological forecasting, which prompted the government to evacuate 1 million people from areas along the southeast coast before a major cyclone last month—a move credited with saving thousands of lives.
India’s Mars satellite, dubbed Mangalyaan, or Mars craft in Hindi, is scheduled to reach Martian orbit on Sept. 24 after a journey of 422 million miles. If it makes it, it will join two rovers and two orbiters belonging to NASA and a European satellite already exploring Mars.
China’s 2011 attempt with Russia to send the Yinghuo-1 satellite to Mars failed after the Russian rocket carrying it was unable to leave Earth orbit. A Japanese 2003 mission to Mars was unable to place a satellite into Martian orbit.
China’s National Space Science Center has been quoted in Chinese media as saying that it won’t attempt another voyage to Mars until at least 2016.
India’s Mars mission, with a budget of $73 million, is far cheaper than comparable missions including NASA’s $671 million Maven satellite that is expected to set off for Mars later in November. The program was approved by the government in 2012.
“Our previous experience has helped a lot,” said Deviprasad Karnik, spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organisation. “We had an indigenous space craft bus already available from our moon mission and the design [for the satellite] was already available so we could do it quickly.”
Ram Jakhu, a professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University in Canada, said the space contest among India, China and Japan was different from the U.S.-Soviet race, because “to some extent it’s about a rush for natural resources.” He said India’s Mars mission “is a signal to the world about equality and efforts and capabilities to look for resources.”
If India were to land upon a major deposit of titanium, for instance, during future missions, it would be a boost to the economy, he said. “India and China want to be major world players and feed their huge populations so they need natural resources.”
Write to Joanna Sugden at joanna.sugden@wsj.com

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