India's Mars mission: between national pride, criticism

MOM before the heat shied closure (Pic: ISRO)

NEW DELHI (AA) – India on Tuesday launched its first inter-planetary satellite, the Mars Orbiter Mission.

As the launch was broadcast live on national television, millions of Indians remained glued to their TV sets.

If the mission proves a success, India will join an elite club of terrestrial powers to have explored the Red Planet.

Anadolu Agency spoke to eight different Indians of diverse backgrounds, whose reactions to Tuesday's spaceflight ranged from national pride to criticism of government priorities.

Name: Zeenat Shaukat Ali

Occupation: Director-general, Wisdom Foundation; former professor of Islamic studies, St. Xavier College

Location: Mumbai

Gender: Female

I think our scientists in India need to be congratulated for this monumental effort. Every country has a vision. And of course a budget!

The question once asked was, 'Why do we in Mumbai need to spend extravagantly on gardens given that millions of Mumbaikars [Mumbai residents] still live below the poverty?'

The answer given was, 'The poor and downtrodden are human and need to rejuvenate their lives. Where can their families go for a breadth of fresh air without spending much?'

Every country in the world needs a budget to fulfill its goals. As Gandhiji [Mahatma Gandhi] said, there is enough in the world to satisfy everyone's need but not everyone's greed.

If we can take care of corruption, we can achieve many such goals. Hurrah to India. Maybe we can cover the costs by organizing safe trips!

Name: Nazia Erum

Occupation: Communications consultant

Location: New Delhi

Gender: Female

Upgrading its science and technology is as essential for a nation, as is ensuring good governance and social protection and upliftment for its citizens. There has to be a balance if we wish to ensure India's position in the world.

Name: Dr. Saud Ansari

Occupation: Resident doctor of pulmonary medicine, Hiranandani Hospital

Location: Powai, Mumbai

Gender: Male

Frankly speaking, I really don't care about it. I hate the way Indian democracy functions and implements its laws. There is rampant corruption presided over by inefficient and corrupt politicians.

And what are they [the politicians] going to achieve by spending millions on these kinds of satellite programs? India signed a nuclear deal with the US some years ago.

What's the outcome of the deal? When are we going to see change? After 50 years? India will remain the same. Nothing is going to change.

Neither I nor anybody else is bothered about an inefficient governance system. We are happier in our own lives. Our outburst against the system is temporary, and after sometime we tend to forget.

Name: Amol Vhatkar

Occupation: Model-turned-Bollywood actor

Location: Pune City

Gender: Male

I am very positive about the Mars Orbiter Mission. As we prosper in life, we all desire to have little extra in life.

I don't know if India will be in the elite space club or not, but this mission, I am sure, will open doors for many more aspirants in the field of space exploration. Since India is already a superpower country, so I guess it's already in the elite club.

The result of this project is uncertain at this moment, but I believe you have to take a step to reach to a new level and, hopefully, India is moving in the right direction.

Name: Kinshukh Jain

Occupation: Advocate and executive member, Rajasthan High Court Bar Association

Location: Jaipur city

Gender: Male

I most humbly submit that it is basic human nature to explore new things and it is in this sequence we have reached here and discovered many things in all the fields of science.

In my considerate view, expenditure on such programs is necessary. With regards to the success rate, one has to take that risk as failure cannot be a reason not to try again.

These projects are very sensitive and involve the best care and expertise to make them successful. I see no link between poverty and expenditures involved in such projects. There are many other areas to check so as to eliminate poverty. 

Name: Nihal Khan

Occupation: Textile laborer

Location: Malegaon Town

Gender: Male

I am not aware about any Mars Mission by India. I don't even know what Mars is. The only mission of my life is to earn enough money to feed my family members.

Is this mission akin to the rocket launches which I occasionally see in the skies in the form of smoke trails? If yes, how can a rocket launch benefit and increase my livelihood?

Name: Nitasha Singh Borah

Occupation: Clinical psychologist

Location: New Delhi

Gender: Female

The question to be asked: to what end? Are we spending all this money so that someone can validate us as a 'developed' space program and consequently a developed nation?

If so, that's a lot of money to spend for external validation. On the other hand, if the objective is to explore something, why set out to explore what other countries have already successfully explored? Why not set original targets?

Name: Rakesh Sharma

Occupation: Documentary filmmaker

Location: Goa

Gender: Male

I hope the mission is successful and huge reserves of gold, diamonds, coal and oil are found on Mars, triggering an exodus by the Indian political class and their dishonest corporate brethren – preferably on one-way flights!

It will then pave the way for campaigns to combat some of the basic problems that plague our society. We will become a superpower only after we ensure no more starvation deaths, child malnutrition or farmer suicides.

We need policies and campaigns to ensure clean drinking water and sanitation for all, along with universal healthcare and education to allow all our citizens a chance to live a life with dignity and realize their talents/skills to ensure a better life for themselves and a better future for coming generations.

No one is opposed to technology or scientific progress, but we must have our priorities very clear. Even within the space program, I'd like to see a focus not on some showcase mission, but on aspects like more satellites for improving telecoms, weather prediction, river mapping, flood/cyclone forecasts and suchlike. 

Let's get our gullies, gutters, bylanes, streets and expressways in order before we hurl ourselves on the space super-highway!

Anadolu Agency, November 5, 2013

India's Mars Mission launched successfully

MOM (Mars Orbiter Mission) being launched (Pic: PTI) 

MUMBAI (AA) – Millions of curious Indians were glued to their TV sets on Tuesday as the country's maiden odyssey to Mars was broadcast live on national television.

"The launch rocket has placed the Mars Orbiter spacecraft very precisely into an elliptical orbit around earth," Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K Radhakrishnan said from the mission-control center amid thunderous applause.

At 2:38pm local time, India's first inter-planetary satellite, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, a barrier island off the coast.

The giant rocket rose into a cloudy sky, leaving behind a trail of orange flame and thick dark smoke amid cheers at the mission-control center, located about 7km from the launch site.

Hundreds of scientists, dressed in milky white shirts with "Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)" inscribed in blue letters on the back, stared intensely at their computer screens, monitoring the MOM's speedy voyage.

The 1,350-kilogram launch vehicle carrying an unmanned probe was monitored by dozens of scientists who spent a sleepless night at the control center.

At 3:22pm, the tension was finally broken with the announcement that the MOM, or Mangalyaan, had completed the fourth crucial stage of entering earth's orbit.

The successful launch marked the 25th mission of the Indian-made PSLV launch vehicle.

India first launched its space program in 1963.

-Caesarian baby-

The next ten-day phase, dubbed "orbit raising operations" by scientists, will be crucial for the MOM.

The 1,350-kilogram launch vehicle will orbit earth for nearly one month in order to build up the velocity necessary to break free of the earth's gravitational pull.

On December 1, the orbiter will leave the earth's orbit for a 300-day journey to the red planet.

It is expected to enter the Martian orbit on September 24 of next year. The closest distance between Mars and Earth is about 56 million kilometers.

This second stage of the nine-month journey will test India's technological capability five years after it sent its first unmanned probe to the moon, called Chandrayaan.

The Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission encountered a number of technical difficulties and operated for less than one year, instead of the planned two.

Chandrayaan-1 had carried scientific instruments from a host of countries, including the US, one of which – NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper – detected water on the moon's surface.

The MOM instruments, by contrast, were all manufactured in India.

It carries a color camera, a thermal infrared spectrometer, a Mars exospheric neutral composition analyzer, and a lyman alpha photometer.

Ramakrishnan, the ISRO director, described the MOM mission as a baby born of a caesarian operation.

"Now it is the job of the spacecraft team to make sure that the baby remains healthy in space," he said.

The MOM program was unveiled barely 15 months ago by Indian Premier Manmohan Singh, shortly after China's Yinghuo-1 Mars orbiter was destroyed when its carrier spacecraft – Russia's Phobos-Grunt – failed to leave earth orbit.

Singh called the ISRO chairman personally after the successful launch and congratulated the entire ISRO team.

If the Mangalyaan proves a success, India will join an elite club of terrestrial powers to have explored the Red Planet.

Out of a total of 51 Mars missions by various countries, only 21 have been successful to date.

In 1999, Japan's Nozomi Mars spacecraft failed in its bid to orbit the planet.

Anadolu Agency, November 5, 2013

India counts minutes for milestone Mars mission launch

PSLV after heat shield closure (Pic: ISRO)

MUMBAI (AA) – At 6.08am on Sunday, four minutes after the sunrise, the 3,390-minute official countdown for the launch of India’s first inter-planetary satellite Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) began at Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, a barrier island off the coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

"The countdown started as per schedule and it is running smoothly," an official with the Indian Space Research Organization of (ISRO), India’s space agency, told Anadolu Agency, refusing to be named.

At 2.38pm on Tuesday November 5, the 1350-kilogram MOM - an unmanned spacecraft - will be launched from an Indian-made Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C25) to Mars, when the red planet will be closest to the earth.

ISRO sources told AA that it is expected to take about 40 minutes to inject the satellite into Earth’s orbit after the take-off.

If successfully launched, MOM, or Mangalyaan as it is called in India, is expected to go around the Earth for 25 days before embarking on a nine-month space travel to Mars on December 1.

It is expected to reach the red planet orbit on September 24, 2014.

The closest distance between Mars and Earth is 56.4 million kilometers.

On November 1, decks were cleared for the launch after a successful launch rehearsal a day earlier.

Mangalyaan has a launch window between October 28 and November 19.

ISRO earlier scrapped the scheduled date of launch on October 28 because of bad weather in the Bay of Bengal.

Milestone

In 2008, India launched a mission to Moon Chandrayaan-1.

That mission encountered a number of technical difficulties and operated for less than one year, instead of the planned two years. 

Chandrayaan-1 had scientific instruments from a number of countries, including the US, one of which – NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper -- detected water on the lunar surface. 

The MOM instruments are all from India.

It carries a color camera, a thermal infrared spectrometer, the Mars exospheric neutral composition analyzer and a lyman alpha photometer.

If Mangalyaan is successful, India will join the elite club of space powers to have explored the Red Planet.

Out of total 51 missions to Mars, only 21 have been successful.

In 1999, Japan’s Nozomi Mars spacecraft failed in its bid to orbit the planet while in 2011 China’s Yinghuo-1 Mars orbiter was destroyed when its carrier spacecraft — Russia’s Phobos-Grunt — failed to leave Earth orbit.

Indian's Mars Mission is being done in collaboration with NASA, which will provide tracking assistance to ISRO using the Deep Space Network.

"This is just a revolutionary step towards space invention," Professor Upendra Lad, Head, Department of Physics at Associate Professor Studied at MSG Arts Commerce and Science College, told AA.

When asked about the amount of money India is spending on this mission – estimated at $70 million - given the abject poverty in India and the number of Indians living under the below poverty line, he dismissed the comparison.

"It’s foolhardy to evaluate this mission in terms of extravagant space spending and growing poverty. One never knows the impact and future gain of the mission," he asserted.

Mujahid Ansari, assistant professor at the department of chemistry, AIT College of Arts, Commerce and Science, agrees.

"There may not be any immediate gain of Mars mission as space exploration is a time-consuming process," he told AA, dismissing the unwarranted criticism of the space mission.

"Bringing in the poverty politics into science, technology and space exploration is a reflection of a sick and hypocritical mind," Ansari insisted.

He cited the recent coal allocation scam in India where the Comptroller and Auditor General put the loss to public exchequer at $28 billion.

"Did anybody raise and compare India’s poverty when CAG tabled its report in Indian parliament stating $28 billion loss?" Ansari fumed.

When asked whether India’s mission to Mars is a desire to beat China, Ansari dismissed the suggestions.

"It is purely driven by science and nothing else. If in doing so, India overtakes China in space exploration, why make a fuss about it?" he said.

Some experts believe that MOM focuses more on technological than scientific objectives but Ansari disagrees.

"It is harmonious balance between technology and science. MOM will not only demonstrate the capability to enter Mars orbit but it will also search for methane in the Martian atmosphere," he argued.

Presence or detection of methane is potential sign that life may have once existed on Mars.

Anadolu Agency, November 3, 2013

10 mowed down by speeding train in South India

File photo (Pic: India TV)

NEW DELHI (AA) – At least ten people were killed and eight others injured on Saturday when a speeding train mowed down passengers who had alighted from another train on the adjacent railway track at Gotlam station, 10kms from Vizianagaram in the eastern part of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP).

Sources in Indian Railways told Andolu Agency that some passengers on Allepey-Dhanbad Express had pulled the emergency alarm chain following a rumor that some of the train’s coaches had caught fire, thus bringing the train to make an unscheduled stop at Gotlam station.

As some passengers got down from the train on the adjacent track, Raigada-Vijaywada, a fast passenger train, came from the opposite direction and ran over the passengers.

Railway authorities are trying to ascertain why the passengers of Allepey-Dhanbad Express had pulled down the emergency chain and got down on the railway tracks.

English language news channel NDTV suggested that since the Gotlam station is on a curve, the driver of the speeding passenger train may not have seen the crowd on the tracks.

AP Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has expressed shock and conveyed his condolences to the victims and their families.

He has directed government officials from the Fire and Emergency Department to rush to the scene to supervise rescue operations.

Anadolu Agency, November 2, 2013

6 Indians killed in cracker factory fire

File photo of an earlier fire at a cracker factory (Pic: NDTV)

NEW DELHI (AA) – At least six people were killed on Friday in a fire at a cracker factory in southern India.

Ten people suffered burns in the fire that gutted the factory near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu state, according to IBNLive news channel.

Reports suggest that crackers exploded suddenly Friday afternoon when employees at the factory were at work.

Crackers are in high demand as Diwali, a Hindu festival of light, is round the corner.

Anadolu Agency, November 1, 2013

Three Indian Muslims killed in fresh Muzaffarnagar communal violence

Communal violence in UP (File photo: Anadolu Agency)

NEW DELHI (AA) – At least three Muslims were killed late Wednesday in a fresh outbreak of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in the Muzaffarnagar city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

The three victims - Afroze (20), Meherban (21), and Ajmal - were beaten to death in clashes in the Muhammad Purraisingh village, the Press Trust of India quoted district magistrate Kaushal Raj as saying.

They were residents of a makeshift relief camp set up in the aftermath of a communal riot which killed at least 60 people and displaced 45,000 others last month.

Sources told Anadolu Agency that the clashes started with a verbal spat between members of two communities.

In a bout of violence that broke out on September 7, at least 60 people were killed in Muzaffarnagar and neighboring towns and villages after a Muslim man was killed by the brother and cousin of a Hindu girl for allegedly harassing her.

The two killers - from the Hindu Jat community - were reportedly lynched by the family of the slain Muslim.

The riot came high on the agenda of the National Integration Council (NIC), a government’s advisory body headed by the Prime Minister of India, during its annual meeting on September 23.

"The Muzaffarnagar violence led to a huge loss of lives and property," Premier Manmohan Singh had told the 148-member NIC.

Three UP lawmakers, including two from the right-wing opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been arrested on charges of making "inflammatory" speeches.

One lawmaker allegedly shared a fabricated video on YouTube that served stoke communal tension.

Anadolu Agency, October 30, 2013

Blasts hit Indian state before opposition rally

Gandhi Ground in Patna (Pic: Caravandaily.com)

NEW DELHI (AA) – A series of low-intensity bombs hit Patna, the capital city of the northern state of Bihar, killing one and injuring 20 others minutes before the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) premiership candidate Narendra Modi arrived to address the party’s supporters.

Bihar DGP (Director General of Police) GP Abhyanand has confirmed 8 explosions in Patna.

Eight blasts took place in and around Gandhi Ground, the venue of the BJP's biggest rally in the northern state.

The first blast exploded at Patna railway station, critically injuring one person who later died of his injuries.

A series of low-intensity explosions followed near the rally’s venue.

Fear and panic struck thousands of BJP members and supporters when the fifth low-intensity blast rocked the Gandhi Ground itself.

The blast was caught on camera by the English-language news channel NDTV.

Several unexploded bombs were reportedly defused by the police at the venue, said Upendra Kumar Sinha, railway superintendent of police.

He had one police official was injured while defusing a bomb.

One suspect was detained at the rally by the police for questioning.

The federal government has immediately dispatched an elite team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and explosive experts to Patna to assist state police in their investigation.

BJP, India's main opposition party, condemned the blasts that seem to target its rally.

"Investigation as to who is behind this must happen," BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

BJP’s planned rally went ahead at the venue where Modi slammed the Bihar State's ruling Janata Dal United (JDU) party.

In June, JDU chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ended a 17-yearl political alliance with the BJP when it became clear that Modi would be the right-wing Hindu party's prime ministerial candidate.

Anadolu Agency, October 27, 2013

India arrests ex-Rajasthan minister for alleged rape

Babulal Nagar, former Food minister of Rajasthan (Pic: NDTV)

NEW DELHI (AA) –India’s federal investigating agency on Friday arrested former top official Babulal Nagar for allegedly raping and beating a 35-year-old woman last month at his official residence in the historic city of Jaipur.

Earlier in the day, the CBI grilled Nagar -- who once served as minister of state for dairy and rural industries (food) in the western Rajasthan State -- at a government rest house before formally arresting him.

Talking to reporters before entering the rest house, Nagar said he had given a statement to the CBI in writing in which he had denied the charges leveled against him.

Rajasthan police summoned Nagar for allegedly raping and beating the victim on September 11 after calling her to his official residence in state capital Jaipur, luring her with promises of employment.

The victim filed a lawsuit five days later, forcing the official to tender his resignation after charges were officially brought against him.

"This is my reply to those who have apprehended that as a minister I can influence [the ongoing] investigation," he said.

"I am being framed in a political conspiracy," he asserted. "Through media reports I was told that a woman has alleged that on September 11 she was called by me at my official residence."

He added: "Let me tell you that my house was full of people on that day on which the woman alleged that she was raped."

Nagar also stressed that the ruling Congress Party should not be implicated in the case.

The Congress Party, for its part, has already suspended Nagar's membership until his name is cleared of the allegations.

The case is the second such embarrassment in as many years for the ruling party, which is currently preparing to contest state polls in November.

In 2011, Congress State Cabinet Minister Mahipal Maderna and Congress legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi were both accused of the rape and murder of a government nurse.

The case is still being heard in court, while the two accused men remain in police custody.

Anadolu Agency, October 25, 2013