Moonstruck. Why?

The year was 1999. The date: May 11. The occasion: the first anniversary of Pokhran-II, the nuclear blasts that allowed India to gatecrash closed club of nuclear power states. Speaking on the occasion, K Kasturirangan, the then chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), broached an idea that would stir fierce debate within the Indian scientific community.

Kasturirangan suggested that India could now aim for the moon using its indigenously-developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which had a successful track record of putting satellites into space. Nearly 10 years later, ISRO is on the verge of making the suggestion a reality. But as the mission enters its final decisive phase, it may be time to ask again if the country really stands to benefit from going to the moon. Also, why does India need to go the moon at all when the Americans and Russians have already done that more than 40 years ago?

Scientists say Chandrayaan's benefits will not become immediately apparent. It will take at least 30 to 40 years to do so. Today, thanks to the satellites launched many years ago, even remote villages can rely on access to telephones and medical care through telemedicine. Similarly, if Helium 3, which is reported to be present on the lunar surface, is brought back to earth, it could help solve the energy crisis. A tonne of Helium 3, says experts, can generate a year's supply of energy. Minerals found on the lunar surface could be commercially exploited by India. "It's a long-term plan. We will need the minerals not just for the earth, but also when we colonise the moon or move to Mars," says T K Alex, director of Bangalore's ISRO Satellite Centre.

But it is the other spin-offs from research and development that could really change things. More jobs will be created when India manufactures the components necessary for further missions; revenue will flow in when India leases the PSLV and GSLV launch vehicles to other countries. Scientists argue that there are other intangible advantages as well. Attracting youngsters to space studies and aerospace research is one.

Most important, perhaps, it would propel India into a different league. Amitabha Ghosh, an Indian space scientist at NASA, says, "Successful execution of the project would tremendously enhance the country's brand value.
Just as the Corus deal proved that India has arrived in the world of business, Chandrayaan-I will hugely boost the confidence of Indians. It would also be recognition that India has arrived in the Space Club and will be proof that its engineering talent can pull off a complex project of this magnitude. The price tag is not prohibitive either: the mission will cost less than 0.1% of India's revenue collection."

At an estimated cost of Rs 386 crore, India's outing to the moon would be much cheaper than purchasing a Boeing 747. Skeptics insist that the money could have been spent on more ‘useful' projects such as feeding India's poor, but many in the scientific community say cost is hardly the right reason to argue against Chandrayaan.

Instead, it is the duplication of effort by other countries decades ago. As Jayant Murthy, professor of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, points out, "Scientific know-how from the mission would not stand up to genuine peer review. In other words, one could put together a more scientifically-compelling mission for the same money and effort, perhaps not focussed on lunar research but on other topics of current interest."

But ISRO officials say Chandrayaan is not a "me too" effort. "Despite many manned and unmanned missions undertaken in the last four-and-a-half decades, not everything about the moon is fully understood," says ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair. "One of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-I would be to fill the gaps in our knowledge of the moon. Besides, it will also help increase the sophistication of our space systems like INSAT and IRS."

S K Chakrabarti, senior professor at the department of Astrophysics and Cosmology in Kolkata's S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, adds that "we don't have to follow China or any other country. Look at Russia. They have benefited so much more without sending a manned mission to the moon."

ISRO scientists believe that Chandrayaan will enable them to reach a new level of expertise. "India already had the basic elements - like indigenously-developed PSLV rocket launchers - that were required to attempt a project like this. The challenge was in scaling up our capabilities to the level required for such a mission," says a senior ISRO scientist.

To illustrate the level of this scability, Chandrayaan-I would be launched just like any other satellite using the PSLV. But while other ISRO satellite launches, such as INSAT and IRS, targeted the earth's orbit and went a maximum distance of 36,000 km, Chandrayaan will travel nearly 10 times further, since the moon is 3,86,000 km from the earth.

"The surmounting of such challenges and the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I would no doubt be a step forward in India's space odyssey," says George Joseph, former director of the Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre, who chaired the Lunar Mission Study Task Force set up by ISRO to study the mission's feasibility. "It is important for India to consider the scenario 100 years from now when human colonies on the moon could become a reality. India should be in the forefront of this challenging and exciting endeavour."

If Chandrayaan-I makes it to the moon successfully, it would admittedly be a small step for space missions around the world but could it be a giant leap for India's space programme?