India’s mission to Mars should be celebrated, because peaceful scientific achievements and investments in knowledge can bring with them the grand promise of a deepened perspective on life and the universe, if not a materially better life for more people here on earth… Koli Mitra remains fascinated…
India is famous for its “otherworldly” preoccupations. It’s a reputation that many scholars, like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, have said is incomplete, inaccurate, and/or misleading. Well, with the Mars Orbiter Mission, popularly known as Mangalaayan, that reputation seems to have been subverted and given a tantalizingly literal and scientific interpretation. It really is headed for another world! Whether you are a materialist/ humanist or of a more spiritual, “otherworldly” bent, you can’t help but get just a little excited, watching Mangalaayan take off for India’s first venture out of the cradle of cislunar space and into the interplanetary void.
Some have expressed concern that this spaceward attention is too distracting for a country with so many unmet needs at the basic level of human survival. But the Mars mission’s price tag is only Rs. 4.5 billion (or about $73 million out of an economy worth more than a couple of trillion), and unlike many public expenditures, this is an investment that pays significant dividends, like useful (and profitable) technological developments. Unless one believes that nothing other than subsistence commodities is worth investing in (in which case communication infrastructure, transportation, the arts, all should be de-funded), then the case for halting scientific projects is untenable. Maybe, to some people, space exploration seems too bold, too ostentatious for a “poor country” to attempt before “feeding its people”. But the point is, investments in knowledge and discovery are precisely the kinds of endeavours that raise people’s quality of life, both in the short term (through technical innovation and collateral revenues, which can even be used for anti-poverty efforts) and in the longer term by making leaps in education and training, and by inspiring young people to learn and strive. It seems silly to reject a certain type of science because it feels too grand. A sense of awe and wonder is a bonus, not a deficiency.
Then, there are the cheerleaders, giddy with patriotic pride. Some have hoped out loud that, like India’s Chandrayaan mission, which confirmed the presence of water on the moon after other nations failed to do so, even with a headstart of half a century or so.
It might be India that finds the first certain evidence of life on the Red Planet. But really that’s beside the point. Ultimately it doesn’t matter who finally settles that question. Maybe a future mission from Bangladesh, or Eretria, or Haiti will find the decisive piece of evidence. We can all learn from and marvel at the contributions of our fellow humans. Whatever scientific discovery Mangalaayan yields will be valuable, to all human civilization, equally.
Despite the frequent injection (by politicians) of a competitive, international “space-race” dimension into the process, the scientists and knowledge-enthusiasts who actually make successful space programs happen are typically not interested in rubbing their own success in other people’s faces. They almost invariably prefer to invite the entire family of humans to band together to love this planet that is their home, this solar system that is their neighbourhood and this cosmos that is their world. I am not an Indian – though I have deep connections to the country – but I think we can all be inspired and proud, whether we are Indians or just humans, that another device of human origin is striking out into the deep, in search of more knowledge about our magnificent, rust-coloured neighbour. Go in peace and in splendour, Mangalaayan! Let’s see what’s out there!
