India's Mars mission: A wise move or just wastage?

 India's Mars mission: A wise move or just idiocy?

If we can do it today, why wait for tomorrow?

Okay, so it's a big thing in India that we're going to launch our own mission to Mars, on November 5th (that's day after tomorrow, yeah) this year. Quite a moment of pride for many Indians, there are several who disagree with the prospect of this mission itself. With a success chance of around 50% only (!), and where China has already failed in 2011, many people believe that it is nothing short of full-fledged idiocy at a national level, and just another way of draining the nation's hard-earned money. And even if the mission succeeds, according to them, what would it accomplish? What benefit will it fetch us, a country that is in dire need of population-friendly, ground-level technologies capable of solving problems like poverty, food and water shortage, famine and illiteracy? Well, this post is hardly an answer to them all, but I believe I can shape this one with my own views, customizing it in turn to the extent that even those people can somewhat realize the importance of this big event for us Indians.

Why the Mars mission is needed? 

The answer is pretty straightforward. Science is advancing at a mind-blowing pace, and we need our nation to catch up. One of the most popular and influential branches of modern science is astronomy. And really, if we do succeed in this mission, India's achievement will reach a literally astronomical level.

So, here are some of the ways through which our nation will be benefited thanks to this mission:

1. National pride

Firstly, there's a question of national pride. Yes, our nation suffers from huge levels of poverty and illiteracy still now, there are villages and rural areas where even electricity remains practically unheard of, hundreds continue to die each day thanks to superstitious methods of treating diseases, the degree of true urbanization and education is really disheartening. But at the same time, national pride is something that removes all boundaries within the nation, even for a moment. People of India become 'one', and start supporting such a big cause. This is a purely emotional point, you can see, but I believe this can act as a great morale-booster.

For long have we heard "India's not capable of doing anything", "India's just a population-factory" and those sort of things. But this moment holds the potential of at least reducing those geometrically progressing, exaggerated rumours about the true worth of our country. Thus, national pride can boost our morales, something that we so direly need today.

Yeah, we're capable of doing this today!

Living in India is truly a hard task. No matter what your age is, where you are or who you are, you need to struggle. When you have nearly 1/5th of the world's population crammed in only 2.5% of the world's area, you do face competition at every level. That is why it is hard living here. But we look forward to moments like these, when the entire nation comes together, and waits anxiously for something that can project our nation's glory to a higher level. Indirectly, this mission thus makes our society better. A morally boosted society is a proud society. Since human psychology is really complex, we can only make predictions. But yes, moments like these can, in my opinion, reduce mental stress at the individual level, and even falter the crime-rate! Sounds like a charm, but that's the way it is.

2. Technological reliability 

Information Technology and other computational sectors do indeed form a big part of today's economy. Countries like India, no matter what we do, are branded low-tech. From the failure of initiatives like WorldFloat social network (I honestly don't know what to call it) after much hype (some even went as far as calling it India's answer to Facebook) to poor quality of Android applications developed even officially by Times of India and NDTV, we really have given the world much to doubt our technological capability.

It is true, since the days of Y2K bug, that India does have a meritorious IT population, and it can really do better than it currently does, but at the same time we must actively work to maintain and improve this degree of reputation on our country's part. For example, a few months ago, I saw that a cricket game on Android, developed by an Indian, is being doubted, rebuked and laughed at by thousands of users who had installed it. One guy commented "Well, it's an Indian app, what's more to say?". Many of my fellow programmers and developers have reported that people simply don't bother to look at their apps even once. 'Made in India' is enough to drive and scare people away. This is something that we need to change. 

Even in the handset-manufacturing sector, we have players like Micromax, Lava, HCL, Spice and Karbonn, and more companies are emerging each day. Yet, they all report sales which are often below our expectations. Why? It isn't that their handsets are bad, in fact the value-for-money that they provide is much more than some of the big players like Samsung and Apple do. And yet, even our domestic consumers don't bother checking them out. Micromax has certainly made a difference thanks to intelligent pricing and powerful marketing and branding initiatives, but even still it is lagging behind. The very Indians themselves are doubting the technological prowess of Indian companies. This is something that needs work.It is true that Chinese manufacturers actually make these handsets, and these are essentially branded and marketed in India, but we should remember that even Samsung and LG rely on Chinese equipments. Don't believe me? Get an old Samsung phone and break it open, and chances are you'll find many components branded 'Made in China'.

India's Mars mission, if successful, will successfully change, or at least improve, the scenario. Global trust and faith on Indian technology and companies will improve with this mission, earning us greater income from global market, and projecting our domestic companies to greater levels of profit. And that will lead to a better, modern and more sophisticated economy.

3. Political effect 

India empowered!

This mission has already done its job enhancing India's political and military image everywhere around us. India is already a regional superpower, and the Wikipedia entry on 'Potential Superpowers' does include India, but once again many people doubt it. And anyway, we're nowhere close to being a true superpower. Smaller countries like Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, who look forward to us for foreign aid and investment, will actually be encouraged to do so more often, thanks to the success of this mission.

China has already started off with a careful policy of geo-politically encircling India. It has kicked off development projects in our neighbouring countries, builging them roads, power-grids and more. This is essentially an important step to 'contain and confine' India. This mission will actually help make India's image better, by proving that we can indeed carry the message of 'Vande Mataram' to other planets. 

Similiar to the second point, you can see how India will benefit at a global level because of this bright initiative. And so, I believe we should champion the cause of this mighty nation, to make the Mars mission successful.

4. Future economy and satellite business 

Satellites are really important for any nation. They provide regional or even global surveillance capabilities, can be used to find and discover untapped resources, for meteorological purposes, for geo-positioning systems such as the GPS and more. As the world turns modern, more and more countries are willing to possess their own satellites.

Mars mission is a crucial element in projecting global faith on India's technological capability. India's ISRO is one of the six leading space agencies, and it does know how to do business. Ranging from lending support to domestic initiatives such as discovering water reserves in arid zones of South India to selling equipment and lending support to other countries, ISRO does have a role to play in shaping the future economy of India.

There are many small countries, including the ones of N-11. These nations will actually consider buying cheaper but reliable technology from India, as well as buy support from ISRO and its likes, to boost their own space-exploration and satellite systems. This will definitely enhance our economy.

5. Self-reliance and development of future technology

Yes, India needs better domestic technology to fuel its growth and make its dream of being counted among standing superpowers a reality. For that, we need self-reliance in terms of technology. Why should we depend on other nations when we can make what we need ourselves? Therefore, this mission is really critical for India's success. Other than simply showcasing India's spacecraft-building capabilities, this mission will helps us in making future technologies domestically, for deep-space communications, interplanetary missions as well as the next-gen space exploration.

In addition, we rely to a great extent on foreign technologies like Google Earth, GPS and more. Chandrayaan mission has inspired India to develop its own alternative for Google Earth. Likewise, Mangalyaan mission will most certainly inspire and empower us to build our own alternatives for foreign software and hardware. They built it first, lets build it better!

Final words 

Vande Maataram! What's more to say?

The answer is thus pretty clear. Even though it might seem that India's mission is a wastage of money at first, it certainly is not. When doubted about the potential of electricity, Faradey was said to have remarked "One day sir, you may tax it". This is one of the best examples of the fact that when a technology is developed and applied, we may not first understand its full potential. With use and time, it becomes gradually clear to us. A similar argument is being raised by the proponents of Superstring Theory (more precisely the M-Theory), that we may not understand its true worth at present, but our descendents most certainly will (provided that M-Theory is a valid Theory-of-Everything).

Likewise, India's Mars Mission, the celebrated Mangalyaan mission, if successful, will most certainly yield benefits which are beyond our observation domain and thinking range at present. So, lets us hope for the best, and give ISRO a big hand for what they have done. And all the best to all the hard-working scientists, engineers and staff of ISRO!

May the Almighty make this noble mission a success! Vande Maataram!